Due Date
by Joyfulleejoyful
Summary: Years have passed since the Promised Day, and the brothers are back from their trips to the East and West. Ed and Winry make good on their promise at the train station, are now married and have been for six months. Life has gone on normally, but when Winry thinks she's pregnant, she knows a whole different life style is coming for them. Ed and Winry's life as soon to be parents.c:
1. Chapter 1

The sun was shining brightly overhead without a cloud in sight, a usual summer day when living in Resembool. The autumn was cool, the winter was freezing, the spring was just right, and the summer was blazing. Though on this particular summer day, Winry was feeling hotter than usual.

She sat out on the porch of their house, fanning herself with her hand and smiling when the sun casted light off of her new ring. _Yup, I'm married now!_ She thought this happily, while putting her hand out from under the shade of the porch and into the blinding sunlight, admiring it.

They had just gotten married a few months ago, six to be exact, and they were the best months of her life. Though, her husband did get on her nerves quite a lot, they were still the best months.

"Stop staring at that thing would you?"

Ah, there he was now, "Hmph, why should I? And don't call it 'that thing'!I like it, it's pretty, and therefore, I will admire it!" She turned to give Ed, now her husband, a teasing smile, intentionally making him blush. Neither of them said anything about it but, it was like a game they played. One would say something to cause the other to blush, making them feel embarrassed. They had teased each other since they were little but, it was different now that they were married.

"Well, I _was_ the one who bought it." Ed spoke smugly as he sat down next to Winry on the porch steps. "What're you doing out here anyway?"

"It was way too hot inside! You didn't feel like you were baking in there?" She looked at him with incredulous eyes. It had felt like it was a hundred degrees inside of there and now that she thought about it, it really didn't feel all that different outside.

"Umm, no. It really isn't that hot, I would know since I have metal attached to me." Ed patted his leg while speaking, "Do you really feel that hot?"

She thought about this for a moment. _He really doesn't feel how hot it is? Is it just me?_ Her thoughts were interrupted by a silhouette appearing down the road to their house.

"Well, hello you two love birds! Admiring the scenery are we?" Alphonse waved to them while nearing the house.

A deep scarlet blush came across Ed's face and he got up, still having the habit to back away from Winry when he was teased about their relationship.

"Well, the Automail Princess here says, it's way too hot to be inside so she came out here." Ed walked over to Al and gave a thump on the back, their usual greeting, and walked with him back over to the overheating Winry.

"Too hot?" Al questioned, "It's really not that hot today, and this has been one of the coolest days of the summer yet." He looked at Winry who seemed to be sweating bullets.

"Seriously?" Winry asked as she got up and gave Al a hug, "It feels like the hottest to me, and not just outside but inside too." She began fanning her shirt, her body feeling hotter now.

Al, feeling a bit worried, questioned Winry a bit further, "How long have you felt like this?"

"Hmm, maybe five or six days? I don't really know. I haven't kept track of it." She turned and grabbed Ed's hands, "Ed fan me too will you?" She now had four hands blowing air at her but it still wasn't enough.

"Ah screw it. I'm going to go down by the lake for a little while." She left Ed's hands in midair and began to walk down the path, mumbling that they were crazy for thinking that it wasn't hot today, "I'll be back soon okay!" She yelled back to them and disappeared down the hill.

"What do you think that was about?" Ed asked his brother as they walked back inside the house. Not waiting for Al's reply, he went to straight to the kitchen and opened the fridge, giving a look of detest to the milk carton before he pulled out Winry's lemonade.

"You want some lemonade Al?! It's really good!" He yelled over to his brother who had gone to sit down in the living room.

"Yeah, that'd be nice! Thanks brother!" The both of them knew that they didn't have to yell to hear each other, but it was a habit, they had done that since they were little.

Ed poured the glasses, and walked back into the living room where Al was waiting, "So, what's up? Did you need something?" He asked as he handed the glass over to Al. It was unusual for him to come over unannounced, not that he needed to be, it was just that he had the unusual habit of calling before coming over.

"Not really, I just wanted to stop by and see how you two love birds were do-" Al didn't get to finish his sentence before Ed hit him over the head.

"Shut up with that! Geez, how long will it be before I stopped getting messed with about marrying Winry?" Ed began muttering to himself, "It's not like getting married is an unusual thing! People do it every day! What's the difference if I do it? Man, even Winry messes with me about it and she's the one I married!"

"Pfft! Hahahahaha!" Al couldn't suppress his laughter any longer. Seeing his brother muttering to himself about marriage was just too hilarious. "Well, at least it isn't short jokes anymore!

Ed laughed too, unable to resist. "Well, thank goodness for that, not that I was short or anything." Denial colored the last part of his sentence.

Al began laughing again, and Ed soon joined in. He was happy that they were able to laugh like this, happy that they were finally able to live out normal lives. Lives not centered on searching for something, or just one goal. They could finally have new goals every day, and as many as they wanted.

They're laughter was cut short by the sound of the front door slamming. "What the hell?" Ed spoke as he began to get up from his chair, but he stopped when Winry appeared in the hallway, giving them a glare of annoyance.

"The lake didn't work. I'm going to bed." She stated the sentences plainly; the only emotion behind them was irritation.

"Eh, Already? It's only five in the evening?!" Ed called out to Winry but she had already made it up the stairs and into the bedroom, he knew she had made into the room when he heard another door slam shut.

"Geez, what's with her?" Ed wondered as he sat back down, truly curious about her recent behavior.

"Beats me." Al feigned his lack of knowledge about the situation. He already had an idea about what was going on, but it wasn't his place to go and talk about it. That was going to be between his brother and Winry.

_ Really,_ Ed thought, _I wonder what it is?_

* * *

Winry had slept all throughout the rest of the day, missing the remaning half of Al's visit, and throughout most of night, only to be horribly awakened by the wrenching of her stomach.

She flew out of bed and into the bathroom, making in to the toilet just in time for her to vomit all of her stomach's contents. It was a horrible feeling; it rushed up her throat with no regards as to how it felt to her, leaving a burning sensation in both her stomach and her throat.

Ed, thinking that she had just needed to go to the bathroom really bad, had rushed over to her when he heard vomiting sounds, and saw her hugging the toilet, looking completely miserable. He walked over and held her hair back for her, feeling utterly helpless.

"Hey Win," he kneeled down next to her and spoke once it looked like she was done vomiting, "are you alright now? What happened?"

She wiped her mouth with a now steady hand, "Mm, I think I'm alright now." It was true, the nausea and wrenching of her stomach had stopped all of a sudden.

Ed wasn't entirely convinced, "Are you sure? Don't you think you should go see a doctor later?"

"No." She immediately refused the idea, "I am a doctor dummy. I think it was just probably something I ate. Don't worry about it!" She smiled at him, got up and went to thoroughly brush her teeth.

"If you say so." A yawn took over his sentence, "Are you gonna come back to bed?"

"Yeah, just let me finish brushing my teeth." She said with a foamy mouth.

"Alright then."

Once Ed had left the bathroom, Winry immediately spit out the foamy toothpaste in her mouth and pulled her shirt up, examining her abdomen. _Could it be?_

Her mind went on a mental spiral. She thought back to the first day of her last period, and gasped when she realized that she was late, really late. _Okay, now what else?_ She asked herself. For one, she had been really moody lately, she had also been feeling abnormally hot, and she was craving strange things.

If it were true, it would explain all the recent behavioral changes in her recently, but she would have to rethink about going to the doctor then._ I have no choice._ _This kind of thing she be handled by doctors who specialize in that area._ She thought, her logical side getting the better of her.

She looked back at the reflection of her bare stomach in the mirror, a smile full of wonder spreading on her face._ Could I really be…pregnant?_


	2. Chapter 2

The night had passed without any more sleep for Winry, on the other hand, when she would look at Ed, he had his hand on his exposed stomach and was sleeping like a rock, snoring away. _Well, at least one of us can sleep soundly_, she thought with irritation. The possibility of her being pregnant was still wracking her brain; therefore, she had no sleep.

When Ed had finally gotten up, she feigned her unawareness, letting him get dressed and go to work as usual. Even though Ed didn't have his alchemy anymore, his knowledge hadn't disappeared. After he had gotten back from his trip to the west, the current Fuhrer of Amestris, Roy Mustang, had asked him to come back to the military and share what he had learned with the rest of the alchemists, as well as Alphonse. Reluctantly Ed had agreed, knowing that he would have to make a living somehow and he now boarded a train for Central four days out of the week.

So, she kept her eyes closed, hoping he wouldn't notice her consciousness, but couldn't resist smiling a tiny bit when she felt his lips brush against her forehead.

"I'll be back soon. Love you Win." He whispered the words into the crown of her head, leaving a tickling sensation there as he left the room.

She peeked into the room out of one eye, listening intently for the sound of the front door shutting, and flew out of bed to the phone when it did. Hastily, she dialed the number to granny's house, knowing that she would have some sort of answer after talking to her.

After a few rings it picked up, "Good God, who is it calling this early?! We don't open up shop until twelve o'clock!"

Winry sighed, "Calm down granny, it's just me."

"Oh!" Surprise colored Pinako's voice, "What are you calling so early for child?"

Suddenly Winry's nerves began to escalate, for some reason this felt extremely embarrassing to her now. "U-umm, well, I think u-uh, that maybe I might, m-might"

"For goodness sakes child, what is wrong?" Pinako's patience was beginning to grow thin.

_Damnit!_ "Um, ok, ok, ok, um I think I might, that maybe I might, possibly, maybe be…..p-p-p-p-pregnant!" She shouted the last word unintentionally, making her look around for ears that might've heard her, though she knew no one was in the house but her.

Silence covered the phone line, making Winry's nervousness climb to the highest that it's ever been.

"Umm, granny? You still there? Please say something."

There were a few more moments of gut wrenching silence before Pinako spoke again, "Are you sure dear?" You could hear the small smile inside her voice, "This is a very serious matter you know!"

"I know that." _Geez, I know that pregnancy is a serious thing granny._ "The only reason I think this way is because I've been really hot and moody lately, I've been craving weird things, and my period is really late!"

"Alright then Ms. Adult, come over here straight away," there was some paper rustling over the phone, "I'm going to accompany you to the doctor's, and no complaints! I know how you hate going to the doctors."

"I don't hate it!" she said with stubbornness, "It's just that I will away my sickness! Why go to the doctor's when you'll get over what you have soon enough?"

"Well dear, if what you think is true, then you won't get over this for nine months. Now hurry and come over here." Granny spoke one last time and hung up.

Winry sighed,_ She's right._ A small defeated pout covered her face as she went upstairs to get herself ready. _Nine months huh?_

* * *

Winry walked up the dirt road to the house where she had spent most of her life until just recently, she smiled at that thought. The morning was dewy and there were water drops dripping off of leaves, it seemed like it had rained overnight. _Rain?_ She mentally slapped herself. _God! Ed must've been feeling horrible! And there I was sleeping the day away. Is this what happens to people who get pregnant?_ Winry was completely oblivious to the fact that she already had the mind set of being pregnant.

"Well, I'll have to apologize later." She mumbled to herself as she neared the house.

"Apologize for what?" Granny questioned Winry, having just walked out of the house and catching Winry's statement.

"Oh, it's nothing. I'll just have to apologize to Ed for something later." It was only eight in the morning and her spirits had been dampened considerably. So much that she felt like crying, which she soon did.

Tears began springing from her eyes reluctantly, she didn't know why; she just couldn't help but cry. It was the strangest feeling.

"Oh dear," Pinako had a knowing look on her face when Winry began crying, "Now isn't this a familiar sight."

"Familiar?" Winry's features were construed into confusion, "What's familiar?"

Pinako laughed, "Well Winry, you're mother had done the exact same thing when she came to tell me she was pregnant with you. She was standing in that exact spot and all of a sudden, she began crying buckets!"

Winry's face turned back into that of a crying person, and tears began to fall again.

"Come on now dear," Pinako walked over to her granddaughter and took hold of her hand, "Let's get you to the doctor and confirm what we already know."

With the still crying Winry rubbing her eyes, and the knowing Pinako taking her steps slowly, they both began their walk into town.

* * *

Winry stepped across the kitchen floor, humming to herself while attempting to make dinner even though her mind was completely elsewhere. She was thinking back to earlier that day, when she and granny had gone to the doctors.

They had arrived there just on time for the appointment that granny had made earlier, and Winry was thankful that no patients were inside yet.

"Ah, Miss Winry!" The doctor, who she had seen since she was little, though no that often because she rarely came here, greeted her when she walked out of her private office.

"What're you in for today? It seems unlikely that you're sick since I hardly see you here."

"Umm, I uh, I'm here for a uh-"

"She's here for a pregnancy test if you don't mind helping us out ma'am." Pinako cut off her stuttering granddaughter, knowing that it was embarrassing for her.

Surprise colored her face, "Really?" The doctor got lost in thought for a moment, "Oh hahahaha, that's right! You were just married to Edward Elric not to long ago! Well, come on then." She ushered Winry and Pinako into a large room with a bed built into the wall and two stools right next to it.

"Don't you worry now dear! This happens all the time; there is nothing to be embarrassed about." She took a seat on the one of the stools and motioned for the other two to take a seat as well.

"Now then, before we get to an actual pregnancy test, I'm going to have to ask you some questions okay?" She looked to Winry for an answer.

_This is why I hate going to the doctor,_ she thought, _I always end up feeling like a little kid._ "Alright"

"Now then, how late is your period this month?"

"A little over a week."

The doctor began writing things down on her clip board in silence, making Winry feel increasingly uncomfortable. "Alright. How active have you been?"

"WH-what?!" Winry's entire face had turned a deep scarlet. _How the hell did she not flinch when asking that?_

"I meant, how often you have had se-"

"I know what you meant!" Winry cut her off before she could say the word and make her pass out from embarrassment.

"Pfft." Pinako couldn't help but laugh a little.

"G-GRANNY!" This was beginning to be too much for Winry to take.

"Umm, uh, ac-active enough I g-guess." Her voice was barely above a whisper when answering the horrid question.

Again the doctor scribbled something on her clip board before asking more questions, "Okay, next. Have you been experiencing anything out of the ordinary? Strange things such as cravings, mood swings or vomiting?"

Winry tugged at the bottom of her shirt, feeling like a little kid not wanting to tell the doctor what was wrong in fear of getting a shot, "Uh, yeah. All three of those."

The doctor tossed her clipboard onto the desk when Winry spoke those words, "Well, I doubt that it would make a difference in what we already know now, but let's go ahead and have you fill up a cup!" She got up, went over to a built in cupboard above her desk, and pulled out a small plastic container.

"There's a restroom just outside of this door and to the left."

Winry got up and hastily made her way out of the room, needing to go cool down her face with some water. _Damnit, I hate this place even more now._

As she reached the restroom, she quickly went in and locked the door behind her, letting herself be able to fully understand the situation at hand. _Okay, _she thought, _from what granny and the doctor were saying, they think that I am pregnant_. A smile lit up her face. _What if I really am? _She put her hand over her abdomen and thought about having something growing inside of her. It was scary at first, but then another feeling took over, a feeling close to attachment.

It was too late before she realized that she didn't want to not be pregnant. Just the thought of it was making her overbearingly sad. So, she closed her eyes and imagined a baby. She imagined a baby girl that had her face, but Ed's eyes, or a baby boy that had her eyes and Ed's face. She laughed at the thought of seeing a little boy who looked just like Ed running around the house and making a mess of things and spewing out phrases like, equivalent exchange or damn you milk! _No, he's going to love his milk; I'll make sure of that!_ Though, if she had a daughter, surely she would drink all of her milk and walk around the house with a small wrench that was bought and engraved just for her.

Winry had to stop her thoughts for a moment, if she kept on thinking like that; she'd most likely be stuck in the restroom all day. So, she quickly did what she went in there to do and left, taking her day dreams with her.

"Alright, here you are." Winry spoke as she entered the room; all of her earlier nervousness had vanished thanks to her realization of wanting to be pregnant.

The doctor got up and took the cup wrapped in a paper towel from Winry, "Thank you very much! Now, it will probably be about four to five hours, so you're free to go and I can call to tell you the results later."

"Alright then, goodbye!" Winry was about to hastily exit before she thought of something else, "Oh, can you please call my granny's house with the results instead of mine?" Winry didn't want the chance of Ed finding out before she told him anything.

"No problem, have a nice day! I'll call you with the results soon enough!" The doctor smiled to the two of them as they exited the building and onto the empty dirt street.

"Geez, granny!" Winry began referring back to Pinako's laugh earlier, "You see why I hate the doctor's now! They always ask embarrassing questions like that!"

Pinako laughed again, "I thought you told me you didn't hate the doctors?"

"Hmph." The supreme stubborn look claimed her face as they began their walk back to granny's house.

* * *

"Are you going to stay here all day?" Pinako asked her granddaughter, who was pacing back and forth in front of the phone.

"Well the doctor said four or five hour's right?" It's already been five!" Winry stopped pacing and began chewing her nails instead, going to sit down next to her granny who was fixing an automail arm.

"You just have to be patient child!"

A few more minutes' silence, with the exception of granny tinkering with the arm, had passed when the phone finally rang. Winry shot straight up and ran to the phone, her heart beating rapidly.

She heard granny laugh as she pick up the phone, "Hello!" her breathing irregular, "Who is it?"

"Hello Miss Winry! I have your results for you!"

"Oh, thank you very much. W-what does it say?" Her nervousness began to get the better of her again.

"Well, congratulations! You're pregnant!"

The words rang in Winry's head, and her hand slowly went and covered her abdomen, tears beginning to fall for the third time today. "A-are you sure?"

"Quite sure." The doctor stated with a smile in her voice, "I have the results in my hand and they say that you're pregnant! Now, you'll have to schedule monthly to bi-weekly appointments with me but I'll go over the details of that with you later. Now, go and share the happy news with your family!"

"Alright!" Winry had a grin plastered on her face, nearing splitting it in half, "Thank you very much!"

She put the phone back on the receiver and stood there for a moment, letting it all sink in before she actually spoke the words she hadn't really ever thought about saying. Slowly, she turned to her granny who was waiting anxiously for Winry's statement.

"I'm pregnant granny." And when she said it, the news finally set in, "Haahahahha! I'm pregnant granny! I'm pregnant!" She ran over to her grandmother and hugged her with all her might, tears of happiness pouring down onto Pinako's apron.

"Well, it's about time I get a great grandchild." Pinako couldn't help but shed a few tears at the sight of Winry. To Pinako, it was like living out the moment of her daughter telling her she was pregnant with Winry all over again.

_I'm really pregnant! Well baby,_ she thought as she put her hand over her stomach,_ looks like you're going to be bunking with me for the next nine months!_ Honestly, she could really wrap her head around having a little person growing inside of her, it all felt too surreal. _I wonder what Ed will say?_

She had a little mental gasp, t_hat's right! I have to tell Ed!_ She sat up from her granny's embrace and looked her in the eye, "Granny, how do I tell Ed?"

Pinako laughed again, "I swear, I knew you were going to ask me that. your mother had asked me the same thing, and I'll tell you what I told her. Just say it."

"Really? Just say it plain and simple?"

"Yes child, just like how you said it to me! It wasn't that hard was it?"

Winry thought for a moment, "Well, no but, it seems like a completely different thing when telling Ed."

"Trust me dear," Pinako sighed, "It's not any different at all."

So, Winry danced around the kitchen, attempting to make dinner when she heard the front door open and close.

"Winry?!" Someone called her in a sing song voice, "Winry, are you here?"

"No way!" Winry ran to the front door and was surprised to see a small but now grown up figure standing in the door way, "Is that you Mei?!"

Mei put on her signature smile and ran to Winry, "Winry! I missed you!" Tackling her as she called out.

"I missed you too Mei! I haven't seen you since the wedding!"

"I know, that's way too long isn't it?" Mei noticed Winry's hand moving down to her stomach as she spoke, and suddenly felt another presence in the house.

"Is there someone else here Winry?" Mei inquired, feeling the presence growing stronger, and in reply, Xiao Mei hopped onto her shoulder saying the she felt something too.

"No, Ed's gone to work so it's just me." Winry stated the sentence before he realized she was wrong. _No, it's not just me right now. But how the heck could Mei tell?_

Winry gave a slight laugh; _I'll never understand alchemists,_ "Actually no, there is someone else here!" A smile graced her face, "Guess what Mei?" She asked as she grabbed onto Mei's hands.

"What?" Mei's face lit up like a child about to be let in on a big secret.

Another face splitting smile covered Winry's face, "I'm pregnant!"

"Really?! That's wonderful!" Mei began jumping up and down in the hallway with Winry, the two rejoicing over the new addition coming to their small family.

"Yeah! I just went to the doctor today and I got my results not too long ago!"

The two began hugging again when Alphonse came in through the front door, "Oh!" Surprise colored his face when he saw the two of them hugging, "it looks like Mei already made it here!' He smiled at the both of them, wondering what made them look so happy.

"Guess what Alphonse, Winry's pregnant!" Mei blurted out the news to Al, making him stand there in shock for a second before he began laughing.

"Is it true?" Al asked Winry, a hoping smile on his face.

"Yup!" Winry exclaimed happily, "I went to the doctor's earlier and got positive results. I'm pregnant!" She went over and hugged Al, more tears falling from her eyes.

"Congratulations! Have you told brother yet?"

When Al asked that question, Winry's mood changed suddenly. It went from being overly joyous to being sad, "Noo." Her voice was beginning to crack, "I don't even know how I should tell him! What if he gets mad? What if he says he doesn't want a kid? What if he leaves?!" Winry began spewing unnecessary questions, knowing that Ed wouldn't get mad or leave, and knowing that he wouldn't say he didn't want a baby.

"D-damnit!" She was begging to frustrate herself, earning looks of worry from Al and Mei, "I don't even know why I'm saying these things!" She reached out to the tissue Mei had pulled out of nowhere and blew her nose.

"U-um well," Al really didn't know how to handle a crying Winry, just like his brother, so he tried to change the subject, "What's that smell? Were you cooking something Winry?"

"Oh yeah!" Her crying stopped immediately when she remembered her food, "I'm making some stew! Do you guys want some?" She through them a smile as she walked back to the kitchen.

"Nice one Alphonse!" Mei nudged Al's shoulder, which was far higher than hers and followed Winry into the kitchen.

"T-thanks." Al whispered, a small blush crossing his face.

_Well_, Winry thought to herself again while stirring the almost ready stew, _now all that's left is to tell Ed._

And as if he had heard her thoughts, Ed walked through the front door yelling into the house, "I'm back Winry! You awake?!"

Winry looked to Al and Mei sitting at the table, "No one tells him before I do! Got it?!" A lethally serious look made the two nod their heads up and down.

Looking down, Winry breathed in a huge gulp of air, breathed it out, dusted off her apron and went to go and greet her husband.

"Of course I'm awake dummy!"


	3. Chapter 3

Dinner that night passed with difficulty on Winry's part, though on the other hand, Mei and Alphonse had no problem keeping their promise of not saying anything, most likely in fear of Winry putting a little something extra in their serving of stew. As every moment passed, her anxiety grew. She felt like the longer waited, the harder it would be to say it.

Her hand migrated to her stomach as she stood in the kitchen waiting for the apple pie to be ready. _How will he react?_ He thoughts were glum, she felt like a little sissy not being able to say something that should be so simple._ I'm Winry Rockbell for Christ's sake! Oh wait, that'snot right,_ she thumped her forehead, _I'm Winry Elric! I should be able to say something as simple as this!_ With that thought, she crossed her arms stubbornly and made her decision.

Once the timer began ringing, she quickly took out the pie, and set it on the cooling rack, the smell was making her mouth salivate. She had liked apple pie before, but this was different, she felt like she could eat a horse's weight in pie right now.

"Guys! The pie's done, come get it!" She called out to Ed and her two guests who had retired to the living room.

Before they had reached the kitchen, Winry hastily cut herself a slice that almost took away half of the pie, making sure to get her fill before there was none left.

"Geez Winry," Ed laughed as he entered the kitchen, noticing the huge slice that Winry had on her plate, "is that a big enough piece?"

"Is it a problem?!" Winry snapped unintentionally, having already been angry with herself earlier.

"Umm, no." Ed spoke in a question like form, not sure what the right answer should be. He quickly cut himself a slice and left the kitchen, not wanting to be snapped at again or have a wrench thrown at his head.

_Damnit! Why the hell am I acting like this? _Winry sighed, leaned against the counter and ate her piece of pie in the kitchen, not wanting to be around anyone at the moment, not even noticing when Mei and Al came in to get their own piece. She was beginning to feel her mood change yet again, the decision she made earlier erasing from her memory.

"What do you think is wrong with Winry?" Mei asked Alphonse as they left Winry's hearing range, still kind of frightened by the look that was given to the two of them earlier.

"I'm not sure." Al had been wondering the same thing, "When do you think she's going to tell brother about "it"?"

Mei thought for a moment, "Hmm, well I'm not sure. I think it's best that we just let her do it on her own time." She glanced back towards the kitchen, "It looks like she's having a hard time with it though."

Al noticed the worried look on Mei's face and felt a strong need to comfort her, "Don't worry about it!" Al flashed a smile, "It's Winry after all, I'm sure that she'll find a way to do it."

"Yeah, you're right!" She grinned up to him and walked back to the living room, leaving a blushing Al standing in the hallway.

Back in the kitchen Winry began cleaning out the pie pan, leaving only small crumbs in the pies place, when suddenly a wave of fatigue washed over her, and she began having a hard time keeping her eyes open. She tried to clean up the rest of the mess she had made when baking, but it was no use, her eyes were giving out on her. _Why the hell does pregnancy have to be so complicated?_ She yawned and walked into the living room, waving to gain everyone's attention.

"I'mma go sleep now." Her words were slurred, and her eyes were barely open, "Mei, Al, you can sleep here if you wanna. G'night." And with that, she slowly made her way up the stairs, feeling like a failure for not being able to tell Ed the wonderful news.

Staring after Winry, Ed was beginning to become seriously worried. _Yesterday, she had slept for about seventeen hours, thrown up out of nowhere early in the morning and now she suddenly looks completely worn out? Is she sick or something?_

"Hey guys," Ed began to question Mei and Al who had sort of a knowing look on their faces, "do you know what's wrong with Winry? You were with her before I got back, did she tell you anything?"

"Nope! She was perfectly fine when I got here." Mei lied with ease, stuffing her face with pie while she talked.

"U-uh yeah, she was fine when I saw her too!" Al scratched the back of his head, he had never liked lying to his brother, nor was he good at it, but right now he had to.

Ed sighed, buying the two's lies. "I guess I'll ask her in tomorrow."

* * *

It was about four in the morning, when Winry was yet again rudely awakened by her stomachs contents wanting to exit her body through her mouth. Her eyes snapped open, realizing what was happening, and quickly ran to the bathroom, making it just in time.

Her head was spinning and her body was shaking, feeling cold and sweaty. She felt two hands gently pull her hair back, realizing that she had woken Ed up again, and began to feel guilty for doing so. Guilty enough, that tears began to fall from her barely open and now sore from crying, eyes.

She got up and brushed her teeth, Ed standing behind her all the while, softly rubbing her back. The gentleness that he was showing made her feel even guiltier. _He deserves to know!_ She yelled at herself.

Slowly, she sank to the floor, beginning to sob now. "I-I-I'm s-sorry Ed." Her words could hardly leave her mouth.

Ed sat down behind her, spreading his legs out on each side and let her lay on him, stroking her hair; an attempt to try and calm her down. "Winry, please tell me what's going on. You've been acting strange lately, and now you've thrown up two mornings in a row."

Winry heard the genuine worry in his voice and found it extremely stupid that she hadn't told him yet._ Just what am I afraid of?_

"Hey Ed," she began her statement with a yawn and she knew she didn't have long until she passed out again, so she breathed in and let it all out, "I'm pregnant." And with that last phrase, she slipped back into her dreams; feeling like a huge weight had been lifted of her shoulders and was placed in her abdomen. Saying it to Ed finally made it feel real to her.

* * *

_P-pregnant?! What the hell?! Did she just say that she was pregnant?!_ He had begun to panic, he knew that they would have kids someday; he just didn't expect it so soon! _Am I even ready to be a dad?! W-what the hell do I know about raising a kid?!_ He thought back to his basically fatherless childhood. He had always feared that he would end up just like his dad if he ever had kids, that he would leave out of the blue one day and not come back for years. Sure, Hohenheim had his reasons for leaving, preparing for that damn Promised Day and all, but he still didn't agree with it.

Ed looked down at the now sleeping Winry laying on him, her face looking peaceful and somehow happy, and his expression softened. His panic was erased, and it was replaced with thoughts of Winry carrying a child inside of her. It all made sense now, Winry's odd behavior. The throwing up, the mood swings, her appetite and her tiredness. _It's because she's pregnant._ A sudden warm feeling began to spread throughout his body. _Winry's pregnant!_ A smile overtook his face, and his hands covered her stomach. _Holy Shit! We're gonna be parents!_

He couldn't help but start laughing, "Hey Winry!" he lightly shook her shoulders, " Winry, I need you to wake up for a second!"

"Hmm?" Winry raised her head up, eyes still closed, " What is it E-" She was cut off by Ed suddenly pressing his lips to hers, giving her a kiss that was full of happiness, among other emotions. This had woken her up. _Oh that's right! I told him right before I fell asleep again. Oh, shit! What did he think_- she stopped her thinking when she felt his hands on her stomach. Tears began welling in her eyes at the sight.

"You didn't give me the chance to say anything before you passed out." Ed looked down to his wife who had just squeezed her eyes shut, trying her best not to cry again.

"W-well I'm pretty tired you know?"

"Yeah, I do now." He smiled at her, hoping to make her feel reassured.

"I'm happy Win. Did you think that I wouldn't be?"

She rubbed the tears out of her eyes before speaking, "Well, I didn't really know what to think. I was scared, and I couldn't say anything, I was getting mad for no reason!" She felt like she could list a thousand other things that were wrong with her at the moment but Ed stopped her.

Swiftly, Ed got up carrying Winry in his arms while doing so and just stood there for a minute, letting her calm down. As he spoke, Winry hid her face in his shirt, not wanting him to see her cry again, "It's ok Winry. There's no reason for you to be scared, I understand why you were mad and I know it must've been hard for you to tell me." He stopped and looked her in the eyes before speaking again, "But you've said it now, and I'm really happy!"

Het set her down and raised his fists in the air, "We're gonna be the best damn parents there ever was!"

Winry couldn't help but bust out in laughter at the sight of a messy haired Ed, in just his boxers and a t-shirt proclaiming that he was going to be the best father in the history of the world, "Hahahahaha!" Winry raised her fists in the air along with Ed, "Yeah, Damn right we are! And they're gonna like their milk too!"

He laughed at that statement, wrapping Winry in the haven of his arms, "I guess, but as long as you keep that infernal liquid away from me."

"You really should drink your milk Ed." She said it for the trillionth time in her life, but she knew that it was never going to happen.

"Just how many times have you told me that?" He said with a smile, but didn't give her a chance to answer. He kissed her again, long and sweet, with the image of Winry and a baby being his future in his mind. He thought of a future full of smiles and laughter, instead of one full of pain and despair that he one day in the past thought was surely going to be his destined path.

Winry's eyes opened in shock and disbelief when she felt tears falling on her shirt. _Ed is crying?! H-he never cries!_ She pulled back a little and sure enough, she saw a tear stricken Ed looking back at her. "Why are you crying?!" Her voice was full of worry, and she took him in her arms this time, feeling desperate to make him stop crying.

Ed gave a slight laugh at how Winry responded, "I'm fine Win, I'm just really happy." He pulled himself out of her embrace and looked her in the eyes, making sure that she knew he was telling the truth.

"Hmm, ok." She looked back at him and smiled, when suddenly her stomach gave into a huge growl. "U-umm." She was blushing profusely from embarrassment; even she had never heard her stomach be that loud. "I'm gonna go find something to eat." And with that she ran off to the kitchen, left over stew calling her name.

Ed smiled to himself;_ I guess this will be my life for the next nine months._ He walked out of the bathroom and made his way to the kitchen calling out to Winry, "Warm me up something too!"

"You can come and make it yourself!"

Ed began laughing while he slowly made his way down the stairs; extremely happy with how his life was at the moment. _Parents huh?_

* * *

**A/N: **_First off thanks for the reviews! They're encouraging and whatnot so, keep em' coming if you'd like! The next chapter will be up soon.c:__  
_


	4. Chapter 4

Ed had a face splitting smile on his face when going into work the next morning, earning shocked stares from almost everyone there. The usual face he had on was one of reluctance, and it was an honest expression, he'd much rather be surrounded by the hills of Resembool, than the tall buildings and ongoing traffic of Central. But today was different, he had just found out that he was soon going to be a father, and it felt like there was nothing that could get in the way of him right now. It was like his usual feeling, but much, much stronger.

He made his rounds throughout the building, taking about three hours out of his six hour day, until he finally made a stop at the Colonel bastard's, now called Fuhrer bastard's, office.

"Ah, Fullmetal." Roy noted Ed's presence as he walked in, "Do you have those reports I need?" he looked up from his paper work and saw a smug faced Ed standing in front of him. "Alright, what's with the face?"

"Hehe." Ed crossed his arms and the look of supreme superiority crossed his face, "I," he paused for dramatic effect,"am going to be a father!"

Roy's facial expression didn't move one bit, "What the hell are you talking about Fullmetal?"

Ed sighed and put his fingers to his forehead, acting like he was talking to a five year old who didn't understand his math, "I said, I am going to be a father!"

A few silent seconds passed before Roy spoke again, "Who on earth would marry you, and have your children?"

"I'm already married, you bastard!" Ed exploded at the Fuhrer bastard's statement, "You were even there!"

"Oh, that's right, that's right." He acted like he just recalled the event.

"Hmph, why am I even telling you this?" a comedic evil expression came onto his face, "I don't see you becoming a father. Oh wait; you're not even married are you?"

"What'd you say pipsqueak?!" This time it was Roy's turn to explode.

"I said," Ed began speaking again as he easily dodged the fire that was now bursting towards him, "Why don't you go over to Hawkeye, and tell her how you feel, you wimp!"

"The hell Fullmetal?! What's that gotta do with you?!" Roy was becoming increasingly frustrated with how easily his flames were being dodged at the moment.

"Nothin really," Ed tried to shrug as he was averting the flames, "I'm just suggesting that you do it soon."

Roy stopped snapping his fingers at this statement, "What do you mean?"

_Yes, I've got him!_; Ed thought evilly "I'm just saying, you never know when someone might snatch her up!" Ed went over to the couch and made himself comfortable, propping his legs up on the table and placing his hands behind his head, "At least _I_ was man enough to tell Winry how I felt."

"M-man enough?"

"Yup, that's right! I swallowed my pride and threw myself out there!" Ed recalled how he conveyed his feelings at the train station that day.

"Threw yourself?"

"That's right!" Ed was feeling completely superior at the moment, overjoyed at the fact that he wasn't the one being messed with for once, "I didn't know what the answer in return would be, but I just had to say it or there was no way I could continue to call myself a man!"

Roy blocked out Ed's smug laughter as he began thinking. _Throw myself out there? Can't call myself a man unless I do? Swallow my pride? _"Shit! Why is this so complicated?" He accidentally said the last part aloud, extremely embarrassed that he did so.

Ed sighed and stopped laughing, feeling strangely sympathetic for the Fuhrer bastard, "Alright, I'm only going to say this once. You got it?!"

Once it looked like he had gained Roy's attention he began to speak again, "Alright, I'm only saying this because you look exactly like I did about a year and a half ago. I was running myself down with thinking about why I couldn't tell Winry anything, and about why it was so hard to say just three simple words." Ed laughed thinking about his next statement, "Actually, I had already told myself that I wasn't going to tell her until after I got back from the West, but of course that plan backfired, and I'm grateful it did."

"Now, here is another thing you have to think about. If you even remotely think that she may return your feelings, you have to think about her happiness too. This is what Winry told me, "if you don't say it to her first, or even show slight interest in her, then she'll assume that you aren't interested and she won't say anything either." You just have to swallow your pride and say it, whether she returns your feelings or not is something to think about after you've said it, not before." Ed finished with a sigh, remembering that he spent an entire month trying to tell Winry every time he saw here._ I'm just surprised she didn't get freaked out and run away every time._

Roy was speechless; shocked that Fullmetal was capable of saying things like that. "Wow, Fullmetal," he began laughing at the fact that he had just been lectured by a not so small anymore pipsqueak, "I'm surprised you can say such sappy things."

Ed was about to retort but Roy stopped him, beginning to speak before he did, "In any case, about what you told me before, I'm happy for you, and for Winry. Just don't screw the kid up with your personality alright."

"Shut the hell up bastard." Ed walked out of the Fuhrer bastards office with a smile on his face, having just been reminded of the fact that he'll soon be a father.

He let his mind drift, as it always does when he comes into work, to the hills of Resembool, and to Winry. _I wonder what she's doing._

* * *

Back at home, Winry was living up to the dream of pregnancy life. She was sitting in a rocking chair, her hair pulled back into a slightly messy bun, and she was knitting her little heart away, enjoying the day thoroughly. If only that were the real case. In reality, she was lying on the front porch, her hair sprawled all around her face and instead of knitting her heart away, she was sweating it away. _What the hell, _she thought about that little scenario she imagined, _I don't own a rocking chair, and I don't even know how to knit!_

She looked out to the view the location of their house had given her, and squinted her eyes. There wasn't a cloud in sight, and the dirt ground was reflecting the sun's rays relentlessly. Even the birds knew to stay out of the sun at a time like this. _What can I do to cool down_? She thought this desperately.

Inside of the house was no better than it was outside, and she had already tried sticking her head in the freezer. And to top it all off, there was absolutely nothing for her to do. She had already filled all her automail orders for the entire week, and by some horrid coincidence, she was running low on materials to begin a new piece.

Mei had left to do some shopping in town, and Alphonse had gone into work around the same time as Ed did. So, this turn of events had left her completely alone, with only an empty house as her company.

Then she suddenly got an idea, "Ah! That's it!" She sprang up from her recent lying down position and ran into the house, "I'll go to the lake!" She yelled into her empty home and began to collect her things and change into her bathing suit, completely forgetting about how the lake didn't work for her the first time she had gone to cool down.

Once she had gathered everything she needed, she grabbed a piece of paper and quickly scrawled some writing on it, leaving a note for Mei and Ed in case one of them came back before she did. She wrote,_ "We'll be down at the lake for a little while to cool off! It is seriously too hot around here. Don't worry, we'll be back soon!"_ When done writing, she left a little smiley face on the corner of the page.

"Alright then!" She began speaking to herself and the baby, "Let's head on down to the lake!"

* * *

The walk there was the same as ever, a long but enjoyable one. The lake was located about ten minutes into the forest of Resembool; it was a huge clearing with a decent sized lake in the middle. She had gone to the lake since she was little, when her parents were still alive they would take her almost every other day, with an accompaniment of Ed and Al of course.

She looked up to the ceiling of leaves above her, smiling at the thought of being the one who gets to take her child to the lake now. "I'll take you through here all the time baby! If you're a girl, I'll get you the cutest little swimsuit out there, and if you're a boy, I'll get you the handsomest one!" Her hand migrated to her stomach that had begun to round off, signaling that the baby was getting bigger.

Another smile crossed her face as she entered the clearing, and saw the sparkling blue water ahead of her. She jogged over to the bed of water, set her things down, and began removing her cover up clothes, revealing a bikini top and bottom. She walked over to the threshold of water and dipped her toe into it, "Yes! It feels great!" She quickly tied her hair up and ran right in, splashing the lovely feeling water all over herself, feeling her over heating body cool down almost immediately.

"Oh man," she sighed as she began floating on top of the water, "This feels wonderful."

This floating continued on for about an hour's time. Her body felt completely relaxed, relaxed to the point where she was about to fall asleep. _Ah, this isn't good. If I continue on like this, I'll end up falling asleep in the water. God knows I'll never live that one down._

Slowly, she turned her body around to where her stomach was in the water, and began swimming back to the firm ground. When her feet finally touched land, she walked out of the water, and to her belongings she had brought with her. She rummaged through her bag for a towel and a water bottle, suddenly feeling oddly thirsty. She downed the entire bottle before she laid her oversized towel down on the soft pillowy grass.

She lay down on her shade covered towel, and admired the sky. It was just beginning to turn a soft orange color, indicating that the sun was beginning to move to the other side of the earth. She moved her eyes from the sky and towards the water that was now turning a deep blue. The sun no longer made the water dance with its reflection, instead the water danced with the wind, slowly moving in ripples down the path the wind directed, and soon the water would dance with the moon.

Winry yawned, and turned over to lie on her stomach, giving up on staying awake. She hid her face inside her arms, and began to doze off slowly, knowing that Ed or Mei would come and get her soon enough.

Back at the empty house, about a mile away, the note that she wrote to Mei or Ed was lying beneath the couch, having fallen off the table when she ran past it. She fell asleep not knowing that no one would see the note that she left, and not knowing that storm clouds were beginning to brew.

* * *

It was about six in the evening when Ed finally got home, the sun was almost completely down and the wind was quickly picking up. "It looks like a storms coming." Ed thought out loud to himself.

"That's right." A stranger who was getting off the train replied to his spoken thought, "It's supposed be the worse we've seen all year."

Ed looked at the man running off, _worse one of the year? Just the regular storms are bad._ Quickly, he began running too, deciding that he'd better get home before he was caught up in it.

He made it home in about ten minutes, his running capabilities making it an easy endeavor. "Hey Winry! I'm home!" He yelled out into the house, but there was no reply.

All the lights were off, and there was no movement going on whatsoever. "Hello? Winry?!" There was still no reply.

Suddenly the front door opened and Mei appeared in the hallway, looking tired and out of breath. "Mei?" Ed questioned, "Where's Winry? Is she with you?""

"N-no." Mei spoke while trying to catch her breath, "I came back from shopping for Winry about an hour and a half ago, and when I came back she wasn't here." Mei's panting still hadn't subsided, making it increasingly hard for her to talk. "I went back into town to see if she had gone there looking for me, but she was nowhere to be found! Then I heard people talking about an upcoming storm, so I began looking for her all over and still nothing." Mei began tearing up from worry as she was speaking.

"Did she say anything to you?" Ed grabbed Mei's arm and helped her up from her squatting position on the floor, also becoming increasingly worried. "Did she say she was going anywhere?"

Mei stopped for a second; her thoughts were scrambled from her previous panicking. "No she didn't say anything about going somewhere; the only words that she kept saying were "it's way too hot"

_It's way too hot? She was saying that a few days ago! Damn it. What did she do then? She was fanning herself, and then she made me fan her, but then what?_ "AH! The lake!" It clicked in Ed's head. _When she had said those words before; she had gone off to the lake suddenly._

"I'm going to check by the lake Mei! Just wait here!" Ed stopped when he made it outside. The storm clouds were coming in fast and the sun was barely giving off any light at all._ Damn it, I don't have much time until it starts._

Thinking only about Winry's and the baby's safety, he ran out into the open field, quickly making his way into the forest that they always went to as children, disregarding the sickening pain that was that was beginning to take over the flesh part of his automail leg.

He called out into the forest when he reached it, "Winry!" From what he could hear, there was no reply.


	5. Chapter 5

Ed ran with all his might, his leg was practically torturing him. The pain he had felt in it before was nothing compared to what he was feeling now. Usually he stayed indoors while it was raining, refraining from moving around too much in order to avoid such pain, but there he was running throughout Resembool's fields and into the forest, pretending there was no pain at all.

"D-damn….it" He was running out of breath quickly, he had run almost a miles distance in about three minutes time.

Running throughout his childhood forest, he noticed the sun had sunk over the horizon completely, leaving him roaming through the dark aimlessly. There was nothing that was going to stop him, not even the fact that he was practically blind at the moment, the only thing he could think about was Winry and the baby.

_Why did she stay out so late? She didn't see the storm clouds coming? _Ed was becoming increasingly worried over the fact that Winry hadn't noticed that there was a storm coming, _Did something happen to her?_ Ed was thinking desperately as he ran through the forest, only the lightning lighting up his path. Thankfully, he had a good memory, so when the lightning went away, he had memorized what was in his path.

It had taken him seven long minutes to finally get to the clearing where the lake was. A flash of lightning illuminated the clearing, and much to his dismay, Winry wasn't there.

"Winry?!" He yelled above the roar of thunder clapping all above him.

He swiveled his head back and forth, his hair whipping his face wildly and without rhythm. His shirt was pressing against his torso, and began to stick to him when the rain started. It was a relentless rain, pouring down as if the land hadn't been watered in centuries, and completely ignorant of the fact that Ed was trying to find his pregnant wife.

"Damn it!' He yelled again when another flash of lightning came, lighting up the clearing once again.

When he was able to see again thanks to the flashing light, he saw a bag being swept up and hooked onto a branch. He ran over to it, quickly hopped up the tree to the right branch and saw what he didn't want to see. It was Winry's bag.

_Then where the hell is she?! What happened to her?!_ Suddenly a tree across the clearing was uprooted, and fell loudly into the lake, bringing Ed close to despair. _What if she had gotten caught up by one of the tre-_ he had to stop his thought process there. It wasn't possible, not in his mind. Winry couldn't die like that. She wouldn't. _I just have to keep looking. _

He hopped down from the tree, and immediately he knew it was something he shouldn't have done. He landed on both of his legs, and sent an excruciating pain up his half metal one. He crouched over in agony, and couldn't help but empty his stomach's contents. He clenched the flesh part of his leg, and rubbed it, trying to sooth it somehow, but it just wasn't possible. The pain continued without rest, so he gave up on trying to sooth it and just continued on with his what felt like a futile search.

"WINRY! WHERE ARE YOU!?"

And finally he heard a reply.

* * *

Winry opened her eyes just a fraction, having woken up due to a loud noise, feeling cold and wet. _What? Where am I?_ She snapped her eyes open when she had remembered that she had fallen asleep at the lake. She sat up and looked around her, realizing that she was still there. Her hair whipped around her face, some of it sticking there and some if it flying wildly.

Another loud noise happened upon the sky and she looked up, mortified to see a black sky with lightning running through it._ There was supposed to be a storm today?!_ She quickly got up, leaving all her belongings behind and began running, desperate to make it home before the storm started.

_Damn it! I can't see a damn thing!_ Her knees were trembling at the sound of the thunder, making it hard for her to keep running. All she wanted to do was hide, and wait for the storm to be over, but she couldn't, not if she wanted to keep her baby safe. _Why didn't someone come for me?! I left a note didn't I?_

She began blaming herself for going to the lake in the first place, feeling like a wimp for not being able to handle something as trivial as heat. Tears began dripping from her eyes, disguised by the rain falling on her face through the canopy of branches above her.

She hadn't gotten very far when a tree snapped in half and fell in her path, a branch hitting her head on its way down. Her body fell just like the tree, unable to stand anymore. Suddenly, the wind picked up quickly and the branches of the fallen tree began shaking violently above her, resulting in cuts appearing all over her body. She couldn't stay conscious anymore, it was too hard and too painful.

As she was just about to slip into the blackness that was beckoning to her with sweet words, she heard Ed's desperate sounding yell. "WINRY! WHERE ARE YOU!?"

With this, she snapped out of her pathetic state of pain, and mustered up all the might she had left within her damaged body. "EDWARD! I'M HERE!" _Poor Ed_, she thought guiltily, _Because of me, he has to be out here in this storm. He must be miserable right now. How much of an idiot can I be?_

Her eyes began closing on her involuntarily, scaring her that she might not wake up. She knew that she had lost a lot of blood, but she was unsure about the rest of her body. She was scared for her baby. If she died there, her baby would too.

_NO!_ She began fighting desperately with the branches pressing on her, trying her best to get out of it. Only, it was just causing more pain and wounds on her body.

"D-damn it." She croaked with a pitiful voice.

"Winry!" She heard Ed yell, and tried her best to look over in the direction she had heard his voice come from.

Ed was horrified to see Winry in such a state. She was entangled with a fallen tree's branches, and her body was covered in red. He saw that her eyes were trying to focus on him, a slight smile on her bruised lips. He ran over to her desperately, "Hold on Winry!" He broke the branches that were holding her prisoner, and gently lifted her up, trying to avoid causing her anymore pain than what she had endured already.

"Ed?" she whispered his name in her still croaky voice.

"Just hold on Winry," Ed's voice was also miserable. His leg hurting even more with the added weight, but he didn't care. He would take this pain any day if it meant keeping Winry safe. He answered her while he began running again, his decided location being the hospital.

"I'm sorry Ed." This was the last statement Winry made before she passed out, not being able to take being aware of her injuries and the pain they caused anymore.

* * *

Ed reached the hospital in record time, the pain in his leg still growing. He ran into the building and out of the pouring rain, yelling for someone to take care of Winry. One of the doctors noticed them immediately, placed Winry on a gurney and took her to have her injuries assessed.

It was all so quick. Winry had been taken out if his arms and was gone within a matter of seconds, when suddenly, the pain in his leg demanded his attention. He fell to the ground, and vomited again, not being able to hold back the pain anymore.

"Sir!" Another doctor spotted him crumpled on the ground, looking completely miserable, and vomiting everything he had in his stomach. "Sir, we're going to take you in! Just hold on!" Ed didn't care if he was being taken in; he only wanted to know how Winry and the baby were. But he just wanted to pass out now, his body was becoming numb and he couldn't handle the pain anymore.

_Damn it._

* * *

Winry awoke sore and stiff, opening her eyes to see an actual ceiling above her this time and not a black sky. _That's right, _she thought happily and sadly,_ Ed came to get me._ Her eyes fully opened when she heard the room's door open.

"Ed?" She tried to quickly sit up, but realized that was a mistake, sending a coursing pain throughout all of her body.

"Sorry Miss Winry, but you can't move around freely for quite a while, not until your wounds have healed enough." Winry looked up from her bed and saw her doctor standing in the doorway, with the clipboard she had always hated in hand.

"Now before you start panicking, you and your baby are completely fine. You've lost a lot of blood, but you're both fine." She walked over to Winry and sat on the edge of her bed, "Although you have many external injuries, thankfully some of them weren't very deep. Others, I can't say the same for."

Winry sighed in extreme relief, "Thank God." She put her hand to her stomach, truly thankful that her baby hadn't suffered. Still, something felt off to her.

Gaining more awareness, she looked around her room, finding it empty except for the doctor and herself. _Where's Ed?_ "Um, do you know where my family is?"

The doctor gave a small sigh, "Well, two of your members were in here until just recently, I believe their names were Alphonse and Mei. I sent them out for a moment so that I could speak with you and look at your wounds progress in healing. The one called Alphonse said that if you woke up to tell you that they are going down to the cafeteria and will be back soon."

"Oh. Al-alright." Winry was in a dazed state as the doctor began looking all over her wounded body, she was missing something._ Wait, where had Ed been? He didn't visit too?_

She let the doctor finish her work before she spoke again, "Um, what about my husband? He wasn't here too?"

"He's in a room above this level, currently unconscious from the medicine we gave him, but please don't worry Miss Winry, he'll be fine."

"What?! Why is he hospitalized?!" She knew the answer; anyone with automail would be hospitalized after having to go through pain like that. "I- can I see him?" Her voice was sad, a result from the guilt she was beginning to bear.

"Now Miss Winry, I've told you that you can't move around fre-"

"Then get me a wheelchair!" Winry cut the doctor off, not wanting to hear her unnecessary words.

The doctor sighed again, knowing not to go against a stubborn pregnant woman, having also been one herself. "Alright then, give me a moment."

Within a minute, a nurse came in with a wheelchair along with her doctor, "Here you are Miss Winry, I'll take you."

The nurse helped Winry down, wincing in pain as she tried to stand up. She must've been out for a long time for her body to be that stiff, but she gritted her teeth and sat down silently, feeling that she didn't deserve to complain about the pain she was feeling.

They both rolled her slowly out of the room and into an elevator leading to the next floor, leaving her to think all the while. _Damn it, why'd I have to be an idiot and fall asleep there? If only I'd gone back to the house, then he wouldn't have had to go through all that. Damn it._ She continued to blame herself the rest of the way there, calling herself an idiot and wishing that she could go back to that afternoon.

"Here we are Miss Winry." The doctor snapped her out of her realm of thoughts, "Now I'm quite sure that he is still unconscious, but we'll let you in nonetheless."

They slid the door open, and she saw him, bruised and beaten. She had seen him with worse injuries before, but this was different. If felt different because unlike the other times where he had gotten in a fight, this time, she was the one who had caused his injuries.

They rolled her over to the bed, and she immediately took his hand, hardly noticing the door shut behind her._ He'll be fine, he'll be fine_. She kept chanting this in her head, and she knew it was true; she just couldn't help the guilt eating away at her.

"Win-Winry?" Ed mumbled in his sleep, his voice was one of worry.

"I'm alright Ed. I'm fine." She lowered her forehead to his hand, and refrained from wincing in pain again when she did. After a few seconds, when she decided that she was going to fall asleep again, the hand she had put her forehead to began to stroke her hair.

Her head snapped up in shock, and her eyes met with the golden ones that she had always loved. "Ed? I thought you were asleep."

"Well, I was," her guilt increased at the sound of his strained voice, "until I heard you talk." He finished his sentence with a smile, and she could tell it wasn't forced.

Ed noticed she was having a hard time responding, so he just kept on talking, "It looks weird seeing me in a hospital room huh? I always came to you whenever I got beat up. I only ever went when someone took me. Like hell I'd willingly come to a place that would serve me milk with my food."

Tears began springing in her eyes yet again, _Is this all I can do?! Why do I have to cry all the time damn it?!_ "Ed I'm sor-"

Ed cut her off by placing his hand atop her head, and ruffling her hair, just like he would do when they were children, "Winry, you don't have to apologize, because it's not your fault. If anyone should be apologizing it's me for not getting to you faster."

"You will not blame yourself, okay?! It was my fault for falling asleep there; I should've just gone back to the house when I got tired." She gritted her teeth in frustration, hating it when he blamed himself for things.

Ed thought for a moment, "Alright then, this is how it is. You say it's not my fault, and I say that it's not your fault either so, it's neither of our faults!"

"But-"

"No buts!" Ed cut her off again, "If you insist it's someone's fault, then let's just blame the sky okay?"

_What?_ "The…sky?"

Ed smiled, "Yup, it was the skies fault for the storm, so let's just blame the sky."

"Pfft! Hahahahah!" Winry couldn't help but laughing. It honestly felt like Ed was talking like a three year old. "Well, if you say so."

"That's right." Ed laughed along with Winry, "Just smile okay?"

She rubbed the tears out of her eyes, and smiled at him, "Alright."

* * *

Mei and Alphonse were just about to enter brother's room, when they suddenly heard Winry's laughter echoing out of it.

"Winry's in there?!" Mei exclaimed, happy to hear Winry's laughing.

Alphonse began chuckling softly, "Well, I really didn't think she would wait long to see how brother was doing." He sneakily peeked into the room and saw Ed's eyes open and a smile on his face, "And by the looks of it, he seems to be doing just fine."

Mei gave a slight peek too, but quickly moved her head, not sure if they should intrude or not, "Should we go in?"

"Hmm," Alphonse peeked into the room once more before he decided, "No, let's give them a little more time."

Mei giggled and agreed, "You're right."

The two of them left the couple in the hospital room, bandaged and bruised, but still smiling despite their wounds.

* * *

**A/N:** Another chapter for you, my dear readers.Is it weird to call you my "dears"? Ah well, it doesn't matter. I'll stick with that. Thanks for the reviews! My face hurts from all the smiling. It's a good pain though... c:

I'll have another up soon!


	6. Chapter 6

Winry's first month of pregnancy ended very quickly after the storm incident. After all was said and done, she swore to herself that she would never go to the lake by herself again. It had taken the both of them some time to heal, which was as surprise to her because Ed's recovery rate was usually abnormally fast, and though Ed did recover, the same could not be said about his automail.

The couple had just gotten home from the hospital, about a month's time had passed, when Winry practically jumped Ed so that she could take a look at his leg.

"Nooooooo!" Winry screeched in horror, "My automail!" The sound echoed in the basement of their new home, the basement being her place operation, as she held the unrepairable metal leg up to face, letting her tears fall like a water fall, her cheeks becoming red.

"Sheesh women," Ed remarked, holding his hands up to his ears, "Pipe down would you? It's just automail."

Winry's eyes stopped tearing, and the tears were replaced with a murderous intent, "What did you say?" she slowly brought herself to her feet, "JUST AUTOMAIL?!"

_W-what the hell?!_ He'd seen her get mad at him over automail comments before, but never like this! Ed began hopping in desperation to get away from the person who sure as hell didn't look like Winry at the moment. "Hehe, um j-just calm down Winry?" He said her name like a question, still convinced that the woman chasing him wasn't his wife.

"Calm down?" They had reached the top of the basement stairs now, "You want me to calm down when my poor automail is in this kind of state?!" A sudden thought occurred to her just then and stopped her unnecessary fuming. _Well, his automail wouldn't be in this condition if he hadn't had to go and save me that night._

She quickly stood up straight, out of her wrench throwing position and into a proper one. "U-umm, never mind!" She flashed Ed a half-hearted smile while scratching the back of her head and quickly retreated back down to her work shop.

"Damn, why did I go into that fit of rage? It clearly wasn't his fault." She spoke as she began pacing back and forth. _Blame the sky, blame the sky._ After about a minute, she sighed and stopped chanting in her head, "Oh well, the least I can do now is get started on his new leg."

She walked over to the lovely box where she kept all of her supplies with determination in her eyes._ I'm going to make him the best leg he's ever had!_ Quickly, she unlocked the latch and opened the lid. A blank expression covered her face. For ten seconds she stood there, staring into her box, her empty box.

"Noooooooo!" She cried out in a horror like manner, frightening the house guests she had.

Soon she heard the basement door creak open, "U-umm, is everything okay down here?" Ed questioned, still frightened by the woman who disguised herself as his wife earlier.

"Eeeeddd…"

"Y-yeah?"

"I don't have any parts for your new leg…"

_Oh great._ "Th-then that means."

"Yeah, I have to go to Rush Valley for some new parts." Again, a new thought occurred in her head. "Wait a second; I get to go to Rush Valley!"

Ed quickly moved out of the door way so that the now ecstatic and running Winry could get through. She was half way up the stairs to their room when she stopped, "Oh right!" She quickly ran back down, and grabbed Ed by the hands.

"You'll come with me right? Didn't Mustang give you those days off?"

_Pfft, _he laughed inside in his head, _Only because you threatened him to._ "Yeah, I'll come." Even if he didn't have those days off, he wouldn't have been able to say no to the face she was giving him.

Again, she ran back up the stairs and into their room, leaving Ed to his thoughts. Of course I'd end up marrying the woman who'd openly threaten the Fuhrer of the nation for a few days off for her husband.

"Hurry up and come pack Ed!" Her voice traveled down to the first floor.

"Well, it's not that easy going up the stairs with one leg you know?"

"Oh that's right!" He heard her run out of the room and appear at the stop of the stairs, "I forgot to give you your temporary one!"

Swiftly, she ran back down the stairs but was stopped by Ed before she could make in all the way down, "Thanks Winry." He flashed a smile, making her blush a deep scarlet.

To hide her embarrassment, she quickly released herself from his grasp and disappeared down into the basement, "You're welcome!"

Ed laughed and spoke to himself, "I win."

* * *

She stepped of the train with Ed in tow, stretching her arms in the process, overjoyed to be back in Rush Valley. She hadn't seen her friends from here since the wedding, and now she had even bigger news for them. _I get to tell them I'm pregnant!_

She reached her hand down to her now completely visible baby bump and took in the bustling town of Rush Valley. _You're gonna come here a lot too baby! I'll teach you everything there is to know about automail._

"Oh man, I forgot how great it feels to be here!"

"Yeah, just great." Ed was less than happy. If wasn't his favorite thing in the world to be in a place where people would strip you in the middle of the street just to get a look at your automail.

"Well, come on Ed! Let's go see Garfiel and Paninya!" She spoke to him as she began running off in the direction of the shop, forgetting the fact that he couldn't run at the moment.

"Sheesh, where did she get all that energy from?" Ed questioned. Pregnancy was still quite a mystery to him and it wasn't something he was going to try and understand. One moment she would be upset and tired, then the next she would be happy and full of energy. Grabbing the bags that were left behind, Ed began slowly making his way towards the shop.

He reached the building in about twenty minutes, and walked straight to the back. _Well, I guess she told them_, he thought as he came upon the trio. He assumed this by the way Winry was currently being treated. She was sitting on a comfy looking sofa, her legs propped up on a table with a pillow, and a drink in hand with Garfiel fanning her from behind.

"Winry we still have some cake left from last night!" Paninya came running into the room, knocking Ed down in the process, seemingly unaware of his presence there.

"Awe, thank you Paninya!" She immediately began scarfing down the food, "I was getting kind of hungry anyway."

"Oh Ed!" Winry spoke noticing Ed lying on the floor, "What're you doing down there?"

He was about to reply when a huge shadow began looming above him, "Congratulations Edward!" Garfiel pulled him up and into a death hold that was meant to be a congratulatory hug, "I'm so happy for you two!"

"C-can't breath.." He was being suffocated, while Winry and Paninya sat on the couch, happily chatting away.

"Goodness!" Garfiel let go and put his hands to his cheeks, "I'm so sorry dearie!"

_What the hell? Dearie?_ Ed gave a glance over to the muscular feminine man; he was dressed in a hot pink shirt and was wearing unintelligible bottoms. He shivered when he saw that familiar sparkle hovering beside his face.

"Hey Ed," Winry snapped him out of his shivering trance, "come over to this room. I need to take your measurements."

Once they were inside, she shut the door behind them and Ed went about the usual routine, only this time since he didn't have a metal arm anymore, he didn't need to take his shirt off. Thank God for that, he thought. It wasn't embarrassing before, but now that they were married, somehow it was completely different.

Winry turned from the toolbox and faced Ed, wearing that same meticulous face that she always wore while working. Silently, she measured his flesh leg and gained a surprised look on her face.

"Ah! You grew!" She spoke as she looked up to him.

"Really?!" He pulled Winry up, and observed their difference in height, "You're right!" He put his hand on top of her head, "You do look shorter."

"Hey!" She slapped his hand off of her head, "Why did you even have to check by comparing our heights?"

"Well," Ed began to admit, "to be honest, I've always done that." He began putting his clothes back on as he spoke, "Ever since we were little, when everyone began making comments on my height, whenever I was around you I'd secretly check to see if I'd grown any."

Winry didn't know what to say, _Was that rude? Was that sweet?_ "How am I supposed to take that?" She asked Ed, giving up on figuring out the question herself. She put away the measuring tape and sat down next to him, waiting for his reply.

"Hmm, well at first it began like a one sided competition, me wanting to be taller than you so that I could defeat you're superiority of being the taller one." He explained, "But then when you said that you wouldn't marry anyone shorter than you, it bugged me, and in result I just wanted to become taller, not out of competition though. I didn't know why it bugged me, though I do now," he gave her a smile, "but yeah, ever since then I just wanted to be taller than only you."

"Huh. Umm well I guess," she gave him a quick kiss, "thank you." Her mouth formed into a warm hearted smile, making him turn beet red.

"Y-you're welcome!" He quickly got up and left the room, leaving Winry to collect the supplies she needed to start on a new leg.

She laughed to herself when he left the room, _I win!_

* * *

It had taken Winry all day to collect the things she needed. She bought not only the things she needed for Ed's leg, but much, much more. She really just couldn't stop herself; there were too many things on sale.

So now they were heading to the hotel they were staying at, with an abundance of metal creeping in a cart behind them.

"Where are we going to put all of this stuff?" Ed questioned while looking at the huge pile.

Winry, still completely satisfied with her day answered with a smile, "Oh, don't worry. The hotel will hold it for us here in the lobby."

Without questioning any further, Ed went straight up to their room, desperately needing rest from the day he just had. Rush Valley was moving further back on his list of places he never wanted to go.

"I'm gonna take a shower, are you going to sleep yet?" he spoke to Winry as he was taking clothes out of his suit case.

"No way!" Winry sat on the bed with a piece of metal that he couldn't identify, tinkering with it, "How can I go to sleep when I have all this new material?"

"Alright, well I'll see you when I get out I guess."

"Yeah, sure." She replied to him, most likely not knowing what he just said.

He walked in to the fairly large bathroom, and turned the shower on, letting the water run for a little while. Whenever he was alone like this, he couldn't help but think of the baby.

_I wonder what it'll be like? Will it be a boy or a girl? Will I be a good father? Will it like me?_ Questions like these couldn't help but run through Ed's mind, making him feel a slight fear of the future. But every time this happened, he thought back to the night Winry had told him she was pregnant. He thought about how he declared that they were going to be the best damn parents in the world, and how Winry laughed and immediately agreed with him.

_That's right! I'm not gonna be some half-assed father!_ With this thought, he traveled back into reality, and quickly showered, taking about only five minutes time.

He opened the bathroom door, and was met with a passed out Winry sprawled across the bed, her piece of metal abandoned on the floor. "Pft, and she said there was no way she was sleeping yet."

He walked over to the bed, carefully picked her up, and moved the sheets so that he could cover her. He laid her back down, and noticed that her hands immediately went to her now round stomach. Without telling them to, his hands reached down and covered the parts of her belly that her own hands weren't covering.

"So you're in there huh?" he whispered to the baby, "I bet it's nice and warm, just like you're mother."

Winry gave the slightest of smiles, deciding not to let Ed know that she was awake. If she suddenly made her consciousness aware, Ed would be completely embarrassed. So, she decided not to. She wanted to let Ed enjoy that moment alone with their growing baby.

Slowly, she sighed with contentment and let herself drift back into a deep sleep. _This man is going to be the best father ever, just like he said so._

* * *

**A/N:** And yes, when Ed and Winry were alone taking measurements and Ed stated that it was now different when he stripped in front of Winry, I was referring to sexual tension. ;)

On an different, non- perverted note, thanks for all the reviews! It good to know that you're enjoying it!


	7. Chapter 7

"Okay, this is just plain ridiculous." Winry whispered to herself. It was nearly three in the morning, and she was wide eyed, staring into their refrigerator. "We have absolutely no food." _I could've sworn that I still had some pie left!_

"Damn it." She grumbled to herself, while rummaging through their fridge some more. With her being preoccupied by her adventure through the lack of food, she hadn't noticed when Ed came down the stairs.

He turned the kitchen lights on, and was met with the sight of a messy haired Winry sitting on the floor chugging a carton of milk. "Umm, having fun down there?" He held in his laughter and went to the sink, pouring himself some water.

"No!" She hopped up, which wasn't so easy now that she had a small, but still growing, round belly. "We have nothing to eat and I'm starving!" She gave Ed who was now leaning against the counter, taking in his wife's silly appearance, a sudden glare, "Would you happen to know what happened to the rest of my pie?"

"Yes I do as a matter of fact," he went over to the trash, and tilted it so that Winry could see the empty pie tin sitting on top, "You ate it before we went to sleep."

"Oh," she scratched her head, "it seems like I did." Her tone was trying to cover up the fact that she didn't recall the event.

But like always, Ed saw through her, "You don't remember eating it do you?" he gave a laugh and put the trash back.

"Whatever, it's late, I'm tired and hungry. There's no need for me to remember that." She crossed her arms stubbornly, "And I don't appreciate you laughing at me."

"Alright, alright," Ed put his hands in the air, and then quickly bowed, "Please forgive me Miss Automail Princess."

Winry pulled her wrench out of that secret place on her body that no one knew about, and hurled it at Ed, "I'm not a princess! I'm just pissed off and hungry!" She unintentionally slammed the fridge door shut, and upstairs Mei stirred in her sleep.

"Well, I guess there's nothing for it." Ed left the kitchen, holding the part of his head that was now bruising, and came back with his jacket and sandals on, having already had on sweats and a t-shirt, "I'll run over to the store and get you something."

"Oooh!" Winry's face immediately lit up at the thought of going on a walk in the middle of the night, "I'll come with you! Just wait here a second!"

Again Ed laughed and spoke to himself as Winry darted out of the kitchen, "Where would I go?"

She rushed back into the kitchen with a similar appearance as his, a huge grin on her well rested face. She was wearing one of Ed's jackets, fitting black shorts and sandals, her hair still messy "Alright, I'm ready!"

Ed nodded and smiled, "Let's go then."

He led the two of them down the hall and out the door, blushing slightly when Winry took hold of his hand. _Well, this will most likely be the first of many midnight trips._ Ed thought this as he recalled his recent visit to Ms. Gracia Hughes.

* * *

It had been a very slow week day at work and luckily, he had managed to slip out unnoticed a little earlier than he was supposed to. The reason for this was that he had decided to make time for a trip over to see Mrs. Hughes. Al had strolled along, also wanting to pay a visit. Though the real reason for Ed's trip wasn't just for a mere visit, he was desperate for advice.

Everyday conversing and interacting with Winry was getting just a little bit more difficult. Some days were just fine and they went about them normally, but other days, she would easily find offense at things he said, cry her eyes out, or not want to talk at all. And now, sitting in the family's living room, his nerves were on an extreme edge when confessing his problems to Mrs. Hughes.

Al was in the other room, having been invited to play by Elicia, who was growing older quite swiftly it seemed now, and the two of them had started this awkward conversation with a sudden outburst from Ed.

"Well Edward," Ms. Hughes began her statement gently, a look of sympathy on her face, "I'll gladly offer advice to you as a formerly pregnant woman, but ultimately you'll have to figure out most of this for yourself."

Ed gave a small laugh to himself and began thinking. _That's kind of how I thought mom would answer that question_. He gave a sigh and let his shoulders slump down a little. Of course he had thought about what his mom would've thought or said if he had had the chance to tell her any of this. It was slightly painful, but when he did imagine it, he thought her answer would be similar to Mrs. Hughes's answer.

Another laugh shook his shoulders, he had even thought about what his shitty father would've said. _That's only natural right?_

"Edward? Are you alright?" her voice had snapped him out of his slightly sullen thoughts and back into the reality of things.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine, just thinking about a few things." He smoothed it over quickly, "And what you said earlier, I guess you're right! It would be best if I could figure it out on my own, right?"

She gave him a look that told him she wasn't buying his smooth lie, "Edward, I've known you far too long to know that you are not alright. Now," she crossed her legs and leaned back into her sofa, making herself comfortable, "tell me what's on your mind."

_She really is like mom huh?_ "Geez," Ed brought his hand over his eyes, covering the top half on his face, "I was just thinking about what my parents would've said in this situation. What they would've told me if I had asked them for help like I did you." His voice cracked in a few spots, but he didn't care. It really felt like he was talking to his mother when he conversed with Mrs. Hughes, so he really didn't care if he broke his composure in this way when in her presence.

Silently, she got up and went over to the couch opposite of hers, and sat beside Ed, bringing his head to her shoulder, "You know, I think the same thing about Maes." She began her personal sentence with a strong, unwavering voice, "When Elicia does something completely new, I ask myself the same question you do. What would he say or do in this situation?" a moment's pause passed before she began again, "But I like to believe that I knew him well enough to know what he would say or do!" A laughing grin crossed her face, "I'm sure that he would throw his hands up to his cheeks and wiggle around when she did something praiseworthy, he would scold her sternly, yet lovingly when she did something bad, and I know that he would support her in the things that she wants to achieve in life."

"So," she gently moved Ed's head from her shoulder and looked him in the eyes, "When we think these questions, imagine their response, and believe that that is truly how they would respond."

_Yeah_, Ed thought, _Just like mom._

"Brother! We're going to be late for the train home!" Ed heard Al yell as he sprinted into the living room, "It's going to leave in seven minutes!"

_Oh shit!_ "Alright!" Ed quickly jumped up, grabbed his coat, and headed for the door, "We'll stop by again soon!"

"Oh Edward!" Mrs. Hughes stopped him before he could run out the door, "As for the advice, I have three short things for you off the top of my head! One is never comment on her weight, two is do whatever she tells you to, depending on her mood the consequence may be severe if you don't, and three is be prepared to make a lot of midnight trips for food!"

The two brothers laughed in response and headed out the door, Mrs. Hughes and Elicia stepping out to see them walk down the stairs, "Bye bye!" Elicia waved her hand back and forth with unnecessary speed.

"Be careful you two! And make sure to tell Winry we both said hello!"

As they left the building and began their mad dash for the train, Ed thought to himself. _I wonder if those three things will work in my case?_

* * *

Ed's memory began to fade back into where he kept all of his other memories as he began his walk with Winry to the store. _Well, this answers my earlier question._

"Hey Ed," Winry began out of the blue, having been silent for a time now, "can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, what is it?" His voice held a note of weariness in it. Winry wasn't one to ask for permission to ask a question. She usually just came out with it.

"Well um, are you alright? You've seemed kind of distant lately." She moved her eyes up to his face that was now expressionless.

Ed stopped walking, and looked up to the moonlit sky, defeated, mumbling to the stars, "And here I was thinking I hid it well."

"So I was right?!" Winry was surprised at this. It had been on her mind for a while now, but she didn't think she was actually right. "Well, would you like to talk about it?"

Luckily, they had already made it to the closest store, so she led them both to a bench that was right by the doors.

"Sit." She ordered him, and he did as was told. Swiftly, she sat next to him and put her hand atop her small but now bulging stomach, her usual posture. "Now, what's on your mind?"

Ed sighed. He had wanted to avoid talking about this with Winry since it was the same for her. Her parents had died many years ago, but she still thought of them, and he was sure that she wished they could be here to share in the happiness of her pregnancy.

He tried to avoid this because he didn't want to see her hurt. He didn't want her to shed painful tears, and think what would have been, but now that she was asking out of worry for him, there wasn't any way that he would be able to lie to her.

"You know," Ed began, "Al and I stopped by Mrs. Hughes place a few days ago."

"You did?" Surprise colored her face again, "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Well if I had, then we might've had this conversation."

Winry's brain wasn't computing. Either she was actually really tired, or she was just too hungry to want to understand anything. _Oh that's right, I'm hungry…. No! I have to listen to Ed!_ She snapped herself out of her hunger, setting it aside for a moment, "Um, I don't really understand…."

"Well you wouldn't would you?" Ed sighed again, "I'm just making this harder than it needs to be."

The look on Winry's face was telling him to go on, so he did, "I've just been thinking about how mom, and strangely my dad, would've reacted to us having a baby. What they would've said, what they would've done. Things like that. And when I went over to Mrs. Hughes and talked with her," he gave a small laugh as he continued, "she reminded me of mom. I thought that the way she responded would've been like how mom would've."

"Yeah," Winry spoke with a gentle smile on her face, her gaze traveling to the moon, "she reminds me of my mom too."

Ed remained silent; he honestly didn't know what to say in these situations. Winry turned her head from the sky and towards Ed who she could tell was at a loss for words.

"Ed, you can tell me these type of things you know." She laid her head on his shoulder, resting there, "I'm not a little girl, I can handle talking about my parents, just like you can. It may be hard sometimes, and I'll cry, but we can't let that stop us from remembering them."

Her eyes closed when she felt him shoulder begin to softly shake, "It's alright, it's completely normal to want to know what they would've done, or said. I ask myself the same question too, but I know that no matter what, they'd be happy for us, my parents and yours."

"Win-"

She cut him off before he could talk, not done speaking yet, "It's alright Ed, don't say you're sorry. Just don't be afraid to tell me things like this in the future okay?"

She stopped and looked Ed in his slightly tearstained eyes, smiling, "We're both broken and whole for the same reasons right?"

Slowly and gently, she connected her lips to his, drawing her hand to the side of his face and kissed him lovingly. She understood exactly what he was feeling, and she didn't want him to think he had to keep this kind of thing from her.

They were broken for their parents, and whole for each other.

"Alright then!" Winry jumped up from the bench and pulled Ed up, leading them into the brightly lit store, not letting go of his hand, "I'm in the mood for some chocolate! What about you?"

Ed couldn't help but laugh at the sudden change in mood, "Yeah that actually sounds pretty good."

Quickly, she threw him a smile and ran off to the part of the store where the chocolate was, a giddy look on her face.

For a moment he stood there, observing his wife run off, thinking about how lucky he had become before walking to her side.

"Hey Ed, you do know that chocolate has milk in it right?"

"Yeah but someone cleverly disguised it in something awesome tasting like chocolate! Just like stew!"

"Hahaha, whatever."

The both of them stood there in the practically empty store, laughing for no reason but to just looked over to his wife smiling face and began thinking again. _I guess I will have to figure it all out for myself._

Another remark from Winry came and he came to a conclusion, _but it's all completely worth it._


	8. Chapter 8

His heart was pounding what seemed like two-hundred beats per minutes, and he was sure that his entire face gad gone completely scarlet. He could feel the heat spreading from his face down into his toes. It was maddeningly uncomfortable, but he was doing it. Finally this words he had been carrying for two years were going to come out into the open. Though when he did speak them, they weren't what he had planned at all.

With all of his might, he pointed his finger to her and yelled his words, "Equivalent Exchange! I'll give half of my life to you, if you give me half of yours to me!"

_SHIIIIT! Why did equivalent exchange come up?! That was wrong! I didn't mean that part! Damn it, can I get a redo?! Shit, what is she going to say?! She always hates it when I bring up alchemy into affairs where they didn't belong! Crap, crap, crap, she's gonna hate me!_

"Ahhh, come on. Do you have to treat everything like alchemy?! The whole equivalent exchange thing is just nonsense!"

"What'd you say?!" _Oh, great response Ed! I'm such a dumbass! I knew that she wouldn-_

"I said its nonsense!" She moved her hand to her chest and said the words the she too had been waiting to speak, "How about I just give you my whole life?!"

_Damn it I knew what she would….._ he stared at her now reddening face, letting his brain compute with what she just said, _wait whaaaaat?_

_Did she really just say that?_

"Ah, ummm, er, I mean, maybe not all of it!" she whipped out her fingers and started throwing out percentages, "Ninety, maybe eighty percent? Seventy? No, that's not enough, but eighty-five, yeah that's a good number!"

He couldn't help but burst out into laughter at her words, she truly was something else.

"Wh-what?!" She yelled in embarrassment, "SHUT UP!"

"Ahahahahaah! I-I'm sorry really!" the laughter just kept rolling out of him.

"Edward!"

"You are just so incredible! You knocked equivalent exchange flat on its butt in just a few words!"

"S-so what? Are you making fun of me?" insecurity began replacing her embarrassment.

"Not at all." He stood up from his crouched over position and went in to hug her, allowing himself to actually let down all of his barriers and be right next to her. His hand went to the top of her head, and slid its way down to the middle of it, gently pushing her head into his shoulder, pulling her into a goodbye hug.

"Thanks for cheering me up. I'll miss you. Goodbye, for now." He breathed into her apple pie scented hair.

"Hmm, come home soon." Her hands snaked their way around his back, and he felt her mouth form into a smile against his shoulder.

For a few seconds he had actually considered staying with her, but he knew he couldn't. There were still some things he needed to do, and he would be back soon enough. Reluctantly, but happy nonetheless, the two separated and Ed boarded the train.

Slowly, he made his way down the hall of the moving train and into his private room, planning to calm himself down. But he had no such luck.

"I know I said I was cheered up but…h-holy shit! Did that really just happen?!" His face had begun to turn red again, and his breathing was becoming choppy.

_I need to call Al!_ He ran over to the conveniently placed telephone inside his room, and dialed the number to the hotel Al was staying at in Central.

The phone rang a few times before the hotel clerk picked up, "Hello, this is the Central Hotel. How may I assist you?"

"Uh, yeah is Alphonse Elric there? Tell him it's his brother, Ed." He did his best to sound normal as to not scare the clerk.

"One moment please." The monotonous voice on the phone disappeared, and a few moments later Alphonse was on the other line.

"Brother? What do you need? You should've boarded your train by now right?" Al's tone held a slight note of confusion while speaking.

"Y-yeah! I boarded the t-train but that's not the concern here!" His voice was all over the place, breaking in a few spots, completely hoarse in others.

"Brother? What's wrong with your voice? You sound really weir-"

"ALLLLLLL!" Ed cut him off by comically crying out his brother's name, "I have no idea what the hell I just did!"

"What? Don't tell me you boarded the wrong train brother." Ed could almost hear Al place his hand on his hip.

"NO! I wouldn't board the wrong train Alphonse! That's not it! I… I think I proposed to Winry!"

"WHAT?!" Al's voice exploded over the line, and back in the hotel lobby Al had scared everyone in sight with the volume of his exclamation, "This is such a huge and wonderful development brother!" The smile in his voice was tangible, "With the way things were going, I thought you guys would be thirty before you even held her hand!"

"ALPHONSE!"

"Alright, alright! Sheesh." Al laughed, "First off what do you mean by you think you proposed to her? Did you actually say the words "Will you marry me, my beloved Winry?"

Al tried to hide the laughter in his voice while Ed exploded from embarrassment again, "N-no. I didn't say that..."

"Well what did you say?"

"I-uh I laid out a deal through equivalent exchange?" He spoke his statement like a question.

"Ugh, brother!" His tone turned into a scolding one, "How would you even do something like that? What did you even say?"

_Damn it, now he's scolding me!_ "Well, I said….umm; I said I'll give half of my life to her, if she gives half of hers to me."

The line went quiet for a few moments, "Um, hellooo? Al, you still there?"

"Pfft…. Ahahahhhahaha!" There was nothing but laughter coming from the other line, but something seemed off. _Wait a second! That's more than one set of laughter!_

"ALPHONSE! WHO ELSE IS LISTENING TO ME?!"

"Ahahahaha, I'm sorry brother! Everyone else was here was here when you called, and they wanted to hear what you had to say, so I let them all listen!"

"What do you mean everyone?" Ed voice was menacing. If the Colonel or any of his men had heard him say that, they would never let him live it down.

"Well, umm-"

"Woooow Fullmetal! I didn't know you had it in you to say such sweet things!" His fears were answered. It was indeed the Colonel listening.

"Don't listen to him Edward."

"Ow! What the hell Hawkeye?! That hurt!"

"Just remember the talk we had alright?" Hawkeye also spoke her involvement in eavesdropping with a smile in her voice.

"EDWARD ELRIC! LOVE IS SUCH A WONDEROUS THING ISN'T IT?!" He heard Armstrong strip over the line, "IF ONLY YOU WERE HERE! I WOULD BRING YOU INTO MY CHEST AND GIVE YOU MY ULTIMATE BLESSING!"

"Nice going Fullmetal!" "Yeah way to go!" "You sure have some guts kid!" The rest of Mustangs and the Generals group yelled congratulations to him.

"What the hell is everyone doing there?!" Ed yelled to Alphonse.

"They all stopped by to send me off! I was really surpri-Oh yeah!" Al cut himself off, "What did Winry say brother?"

"Like hell I'm gonna say it with everyone listening!"

"Well just say it to me then brother! I'd very much like to know."

"No way in hell!"

Al sighed, "Oh well. I guess we'll just have to call Winry then!"

"N-NO! J-just hold on a second!" _Damn it! I should've just kept to myself._

"Yes brother?" Ed heard small notes of laughter on the line as Al talked.

"Sh-she said… _she'd give me her whole life…_" Ed's voice was barely a whisper into the phone.

"I'm sorry, what'd you say brother?"

"I said… _she'd give me her whole life_…" Again, his voice was barely a whisper.

"What?"

"AHHH SCREW IT!" He really didn't have anything to lose at this point, so he just came out and yelled it, "SHE SAID, SHE'D GIVE ME HER WHOLE LIFE!"

Silence covered the phone line once again, and Ed's words were left hanging in the air.

"There! Are you guys happy now?!"

"Brother… That's really great." Alphonse began tearing up while speaking, "Really brother! You get what this means right?"

"That's why I called you in the first place Al! I'm screwed up right now! I don't know what to think, and I'm seriously questioning whether that happened or not!" Ed's emotions began to run wild for the third time that day.

"Calm down brother. It's alright! It's great!" The only thing that could be heard on Ed's line was his ragged breathing, so Al went on, "Okay, well let me ask you this. Do _you_ think you it was a proposal? Would you want to marry Winry?"

"Of course." Ed quickly covered his mouth, shocked at how blunt he had just been. But, it seems as though his bluntness snapped him out of his confused state. _That's right. That's what I had intended to ask her anyway. Why the hell was I just so confused? Well, not like it matters now._ He smiled to himself and let his eyes hold a look of sincerity.

"There's your answer brother." Al smiled into the phone. His brother had finally done it!

"Yeah. Thanks Al." Ed breathed, his chest now feeling lighter than ever, "I'll talk to you soon then. Be careful in the east okay?"

"I will brother. You be careful too alright."

"Bye Fullmetal!" Mustang got in one last teasing sentence before Ed decided to put the phone back on the receiver.

"Shut the hell up Colonel Bastard!" and with that Ed hung up, and took a long deep breath.

He walked over to his seat, and lethargically sat down. Already, he was beginning to wonder when he would be able to come back home.

* * *

Ed awoke with a start, almost falling out of bed, and wiggling around to stay on until he finally fell.

"Shit." He whispered, and looked up on the bed to Winry, scared he may have woken her up. The face she was currently making told him that she was still sound asleep, and he sighed in relief.

Silently, he climbed back onto the bed, but didn't lie down just yet. _Man, I haven't had that dream in a while._ He let a small chuckle out, thinking about how ridiculous he was back then. It was still confusing to him as to why he started freaking out in the first place. _After all,_ he thought, _it all turned out amazingly._

He looked to his wife's sleeping face, and then down to her stomach, which was now a habit for him. Every time he looked at her, he couldn't help but look there as well.

His hand migrated to her soft, messy hair and stroked it gently, pushing the strands that were blocking his view of her face behind her ear. Swiftly, he felt his face start to heat up and he gazed at her face. _Damn, she's not even awake and she's still winning._

His eyes averted from her face and to the clock, giving a slight groan when he saw the time. It was currently five o'clock in the morning, and unfortunately he had to report into work that day.

"Oh well," he hopped out of bed, careful to not wake Winry up, and walked into their bathroom, starting the shower, "guess it can't be helped."

Once she knew Ed was inside the shower, she allowed herself to blush accordingly. It felt blaringly obvious that her face was a deep red. _Oh my goodness, it was all I could do to stay still!_ She moved her hand to her face and confirmed it's redness by the heat she felt.

Wanting to get up, she lifted her torso off the bed and sat there for a few moments. "Why is he all sweet and romantic when he thinks I'm asleep?" she pouted for a moment and crossed her arms, lightly setting them atop her rounded stomach. _Oh well_, she laughed to herself, _he'd get extremely embarrassed otherwise_.

Her feet moved from the bed to the floor, and she began waddling her way downstairs._ Damn it, I feel like a penguin!_ Even though her stomach wasn't that big yet, the weight she wasn't used to threw her balance off considerably. Knowing this, she had always made sure to hold onto the hand rail while walking down the stairs. Though it took longer to get down, it wasn't anything she couldn't deal with.

"Oh crap!" she forgot to ask Ed what he wanted for breakfast, and luckily she hadn't made it that far down the stairs.

She made her way back into the room, humming lightly to herself when suddenly, she felt something odd in her stomach. "What was that?!" When she spoke again there was another odd feeling. _Wait a second, is that the baby kicking?!_

"Oh my God!" Again there was another. "Edward! Get out here!"

She heard the shower stop suddenly and then there was a loud bang that followed. "AGH. DAMN IT."

"Ed! You're gonna miss it!" She yelled again from in the middle of their room, afraid that if she moved the baby would stop.

The bathroom door flung open and revealed a towel waisted Ed, with soaked hair to match, "What?! What happened?!"

"Pfft, hahaha you look ridiculous!" She bent over slightly from the laughter that was rolling out of her.

Ed just crossed his arms stubbornly, "Well excuse me! At least I'm not the one yelling like a maniac at five thirty in the morning!"

"A maniac?! Why do you even need to wake up at five in the morning?! Your train doesn't leave until eight!" she retorted.

"It's not my fault if I suddenly wake up around this time! I can't control it!"

"Well maybe if you wouldn't sleep so erratically, then you'd get a full night's slee-AH!" Her hand flew to her stomach as the baby kicked again. _Ha, it's like the baby's telling us to stop yelling at each other_.

"What's wrong?" Despite just yelling at her, Ed rushed to her side as he saw her hand go down to her stomach.

"This is what I was yelling like a "maniac" for!" She looked up at him and smiled, "Feel!" Her hand gripped his and she placed it on her stomach, waiting for the next kick.

"Wooah…" Ed's eyes looked much like a child's at that moment, "Is that really the baby?!"

"No Ed. I also have an alien residing within me. Of course it's the baby!" She laughed at his behavior, and was reminded of the time they were at Rush Valley.

"It kind of reminds you of that one time we visited Rush Valley huh?" She asked with a nostalgic smile on her face.

"Yeah!" Ed's face lit up at the memory, "Only now, it feels completely different when the baby we're feeling is our own."

"Mhmm, you're right."

Ed looked down at Winry who was practically glowing with happiness. He leaned his head down a couple of inches and gave her a sweet kiss, wanting to savor the moment.

Winry was more than happy to oblige, and wrapped her arms around Ed's neck, signaling to him that she wanted to stay like that a little while longer.

All too soon, the two broke apart when they heard two sets of gasps behind their door that they had left open. "Crap, I forgot we had house guests!" Ed exclaimed quietly to himself, and quickly ran back into the bathroom, starting the shower once again.

"Al, Mei, you can come in now." Winry spoke with a slightly sullen mood.

Two heads popped out from behind the door, with apologetic looks on their faces. "Uh, s-sorry Winry." Al apologized, scratching the back of his head.

"We overheard that the baby was kicking and we wanted to feel too!" Mei exclaimed, trying to cover for her and Alphonse.

"Hahaha, it's alright!" Winry's sullen mood lifted with the sheepish looks on their faces, "Come feel! The baby's still kicking!"

Al and Mei immediately ran over to her, and for a moment she was genuinely surprised by the pair's height difference. _They would look so cute together!_

"Woow!" The two exclaimed, completely in synch with one another.

"The baby has such a strong life force!" Mei began conversing with Al as they kept feeling the baby's kicks.

"You think so?" Al replied swiftly.

"Yup! I can sense it! You should be able to do that too Alphonse!" She gave him a slightly stern look, "What happened to all that training we did in Xing?"

"Oh! Uh r-right!"

"Umm, excuse me," Winry cut them off before they could say anything else, "Do you think you guys could continue this downstairs? My feet are starting to hurt and I've still got to make breakfast."

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Again, the two were exactly in synch.

"Why don't you let me take care of breakfast Winry?" Al offered like the gentleman he was and rushed down to get started on it.

A few moments passed before Mei decided follow after him, "I'll go and help!"

And with that, Winry was left alone in the room._ I guess I'll go too then._

Once again she began waddling down the stairs, until she remembered that she still hadn't asked Ed what he wanted for breakfast. Sighing, she looked back up to the door to their room and slowly made her way back up.

"I _really_ hate these stairs."

* * *

**A/N: **So, how was that flashback? I had always wondered what had gone through Ed's mind after the words that were exchanged at the train station, and this is what I came up with.c:

Review if you'd like and let me know what you think. Until the next chapter then.c:


	9. Chapter 9

The question had been on Winry's mind for quite some time now, rolling and jumping around the inside of her head. It was a big question, one that would affect their lives considerably.

_Will the baby be a boy or a girl?_

Again, she found herself thinking about this question and becoming overbearingly excited. She couldn't wait to know the answer, and tomorrow morning she would finally know. Finally her sixth month had rolled around the corner.

With the sun almost completely set, she now sat on her comfy couch, curled up in a warm blanket and reading up on some new automail procedures. Autumn was almost over, and the days were growing colder and windier. It was a rare sight to see Winry without a jacket on, or a blanket wrapped around her.

Deciding sitting up was becoming too uncomfortable, she threw the pillows that were in her way on the floor, kept a few for herself, and moved her body to lay down on her back, her stomach being too big to lay on anymore.

Once she was settled, she looked over to the fire she had going, and felt a small twinge of loneliness. Ed was staying over in Central for the night, and unfortunately, Al and Mei were also required to stay. Why Mei had to stay was unknown to her, but she could understand why the boys had to stay, it was they're job after all.

_I wish I didn't have to be alone though_. She had thought of calling granny, but didn't want to worry/bother her. A guilty feeling washed over her at the thought of granny's name. The only reason Ed had let her stay alone was because she had promised him that she would get granny to stay with her.

She covered her face with the blanket, ashamed_, Ugh, I'm a dirty liar…. I should call Ed_. She was about to get up when suddenly there was a loud bang from outside, and in a split second all the power in the house shut off. Luckily, she had started the fire about an hour before.

"Holy _shit_." The words escaped her mouth on instinct, and her body curled up into the fetal position, goose bumps rising on her skin.

A few minutes passed and she recovered herself, sitting up on the couch and examining her living room. "It's alright," she put her hand on top of her stomach, "It's alright baby. We're okay."

Thankfully, the phone was lit up by the fire and it made it easy for her to spot it. She walked across the dark room and picked up the phone, there was no sound coming from the line. "Damn it." That's right, she mentally kicked herself, _the power went out_. _ Is it only our house though, or the whole town? _There was no way for her to tell.

"What now?" Suddenly she remembered that Ed had stuffed a flashlight in one of the side table's drawers, and went rummaging through them, taking about a minutes time before she found one.

"Yes!" She let out a small triumphant shout, for some reason feeling the need to be quiet.

She turned it on, and walked out of the living room and into the front doors hall. There was a small click on the lock, and then she slowly opened it, wanting to feel what the weather was like.

As she opened it, a huge gust of extremely cold air washed past her legs, and almost forced the door completely open. "What the heck?!" she quickly shut the door, "Why is it so cold out there?" It felt like the dead of winter!

Her feet carried her back into the living room and to the window. She pulled the curtain back, and from what little sunlight was left, she saw that there were storm clouds brewing._ Oh no._

Her mind was beginning to scramble from panic. _The loud bang back then must've been lightning, which meant that the power isn't going to come back on anytime soon. Also, the rain combined with the sudden drop in temperature meant that more than likely there is going to be snow tonight, and a lot of it._

_What do I do?_ She closed the curtain, and looked back into her dark house. The light was dancing slowly on the walls, and she heard the faint crackle of the burning wood, filling the house with a sort of maple aroma. _Huh,_ a small grin spread on her face, _this might not be so bad after all._

Now that she thought about it, she was finally alone. It was just her and the baby. It wasn't that she didn't want to be with everyone else; it just felt nice to have some quiet time to herself. Lately she had been entertaining two new house guests, Alphonse and Mei.

She loved them to death, but it was kind of getting old how she and Ed didn't have any privacy anymore. She blushed at the thought. For some reason, Al had felt the need to stay at the house while Mei was there.

_No, I know the reason_, Winry thought to herself with a smile. She had settled down next to the fireplace, pillows and blankets surrounding her, a book in her hand, and a cup of cold milk waiting to be drank. _I wonder when they'll admit it to each other?_

While the snow storm was beginning to brew outside, Winry just sat warm and cozy next the warm fire, picking up a book and letting her mind wander into the world it was made up of. But Ed, all the way over in Central, was having no such luck.

* * *

Ed's mood couldn't have been fouler. He had spent almost all day in useless meetings, appointments, and meeting new people who he forgot about in ten minutes. And this was all for the sake of the Colonel's appearance as Fuhrer.

"I have to make sure that the public thinks I'm surrounded by good hearted and kind people." Mustang had explained to Ed and Al a few days earlier why they would need to be staying in Central for a night, and couldn't help but laugh when he said "good hearted" and "kind". "So, you'll need to be putting on your best faces, and acts. I can't have them thinking I have a hot tempered child supporting me."

_Damn that Fuhrer. Who the hell is he calling hot tempered?!_ Ed stopped in the corridor he had been aimlessly traveling through, and looked out the window. From what he could see, it seems like the wind was picking up by the way the trees were swaying in the courtyard.

_I wonder how Winry is…_ He sighed, and kept moving on. It was almost time for him to getting to the hotel, and thankfully all he had to do before he did was turn in some reports to Hawkeye.

Swiftly, he made his way down the hall where Hawkeyes office was, when he overheard some disturbing news coming from a slightly open door.

"Yeah, apparently down in Resembool they're experiencing a freak snowstorm."

"Oh man that must suck."

"Yeah, there was a broadcasting about it and suddenly the channel cut off."

"Do you think their power went out?"

"Geez, I should hope not. It would be bad for them if it did. Who knows how cold it would get then."

Ed froze in front of Hawkeyes office._ A freak snowstorm?! A power outage?! Shit!_

He quickly stuffed the papers under Hawkeye's door and ran back down the hall, heading to where Alphonse should be finishing some training.

He came upon the room designated for alchemists and their practice and luckily Al was where Ed thought he was.

"Alphonse!" He ran into the room yelling, unintentionally scaring Al.

"Geez brother!" Al turned and faced Ed, "Can't you walk into a room and call me like a normal person?"

"Al did you know that there's a freak snowstorm happening at home right now?!"

Al's eye's widened in surprise, "No I didn't. Where did you hear this from?"

"I overheard some guys talking about it. They said that there was a broadcasting, and the channel suddenly cut off like it might've been a power outage."

Al could already see where Ed was going with this. No doubt he wanted to rush back home and see if Winry was alright. But if what he was saying was true, then there was no possible way for them to get home now.

"Have you tried calling to see if the power's back?" If possible he wanted to avoid persuading his brother to stay. When it came to Winry Ed wouldn't budge on his decision, but it was different this time. Because of the storm, surely no trains would be running, and there was no way anyone would be willing to drive into one either. So there really was no other option.

The thought connected in Ed's head, "Good idea Al!" He ran out of the room and Alphonse followed.

"Where are we going?"

"Let's just head back to the hotel. We can call granny from there."

"Granny?"

"Yeah, Winry's staying there while we're gone. That's the only reason she isn't here right now."

Al sweat dropped. _Heh, that figures. I had wondered why he was alright with leaving Winry at home._ Al looked at the back of his brother's head. _Well, I guess I can understand._

He thought back to the past few months and Ed's newfound attitude when it came to Winry. The best word to describe him was overprotective. Extremely protective, though not to the point where he was with her every minute of the day.

Al laughed in his mind,_ this reminds me of the time when they had just gotten back from their honeymoon and that one guy had tried to ask Winry on a dat-_

"We're here Al!" Ed's announcement interrupted Al's thought process, and he shoved the memories aside for the moment.

They both ran up to the familiar maple scented front desk, and Ed grabbed hold of the phone. He was about to dial the number when he stopped.

"What is it brother?" Al questioned Ed's lack in movement.

"Umm… What's granny's number again?"

"Brother!" Al took the phone from his hands, "How can you forget granny's number?"

Ed put his hands up, defending himself, "Hey, we haven't had the need to call her in a long time! Whenever we want to see or talk to her, she's just a thirty minute walk away."

Without replying, Al just shook his head, and dialed the number. "Here you go brother."

Quickly, Ed took the phone and waited to hear the ringing, "It's ringing Al!" A bit of relief flashed in his eyes. _If the phone is ringing then it must be that the electricity is on._

A few rings passed and Pinako picked up the phone, "Hel-?"

"Granny, is everything alright over there?!" Ed cut Pinako off, "We heard that there was a snowstorm going on!"

"I knew you'd call sooner or later," he heard some rustling over the line, "and you heard right." Back in Resembool Pinako looked out of her window, "I've never seen anything like it. The only times we get snow is later in the year, and even then we don't get a storm like this."

"But you're both okay? Another thing I heard was that there was a power outage."

"Again you heard right, but only half of the town's power is back." Again she looked out her window and to where the Elrics house should be. It was still pitch black over there.

"You're side of the town's power is still out, but don't worry I'm sure Winry's alright."

Ed stopped at this statement, "Wait a second, you say that like she's not with you."

"That's because she isn't. What makes you think she's with me?" Pinako's voice was slightly confused.

"Winry never called you." He was speaking more to himself than he was to granny with this sentence.

"Well, I'm glad you're okay granny." Ed pulled the phone from his ear, handed it to Al, and began to make his way up the stairs.

"U-Um, I'm glad you're alright too granny. I've got to go now, but I'll call you later." Al quickly said his goodbyes, followed after Ed, and found him there room. From Ed's side of the conversation, he could tell that Winry had never gone to granny's house, and now he knew that Ed wanted more than anything to go to her.

"Brother, you know that you can't g-"

"Alphonse," Ed cut him off and turned to face him, "punch me."

"What?" Al instinctively put his hands behind his back, "No way! Why?"

"Just do it please."

"I won't do it without a reason to." Al replied.

"Alight then," Ed's fist tightened, "If you don't do it and knock some sense into me, I'm going to do something extremely stupid, while not thinking about the aftermath of what it might do to me in my current state."

In other words, he was going to go back home to Winry in the middle of a snowstorm and because he now had his arm back, there was a higher chance that me might develop hypothermia when out there, compared to the Brigg's situation.

Without another word having to be said, Al swung his arm around and connected with his shoulder, not wanting to inflict too much pain on him.

Ed winced but he was still standing upright, "That hurt damn it!" He rubbed his shoulder slightly, but it still wasn't enough to put some sense in him.

"Another one Al."

Not feeling the slightest bit provoked, Al gave him another. He put the same strength behind it, but this time he hit him in the abdomen, which would hurt considerably more.

He staggered backwards, and his foot hit the bottom of the bed, making him fall backwards onto the mattress, spreading his arms straight out when he did._ Shit._

"Are you alright now brother?"

"No."

Turning around, Al sighed and went to sit down on the sofa. A few silent minutes passed. "Winry and the baby will be fine." He saw Ed's hands grip the sheets when he mentioned the two of them, "She's tough and I'm sure she's got a fire going with that fire place of yours."

"She's really smart brother, and you already know that. There's no way that she's not utilizing everything that she can to stay warm."

Ed let out a long and loud sigh, "She is really smart." He thought for a moment, "Hell, she could probably handle a situation like that better than I could."

Al gave a small laugh in response, "It'll be okay. We'll leave first thing in the morning. Before I hung up the phone with granny, she told me that it'll probably only last throughout the night anyway."

A bit more resigned, Ed pulled the lower half of his body onto the bed and threw the sheets out from under him, blanketing himself.

He looked to the window placed just by his head, a crack in the curtain allowing him to see out into the city. The lights were ablaze and people bustled about below, most likely heading to their homes and to their families.

Forcefully he shut his eyes, and made himself go unconscious, knowing that sleep would keep him from the ruthless hours of waiting.

_Damn it._ He clenched his fists once more._ I just wish they weren't alone._

* * *

Winry awoke comfy and extremely well rested. She opened her eyes and they were met with mounds of pillows and blankets, all different sizes and colors. Her nose sniffed the faint scent of firewood, and she sat up to check the fire she had kindled last night, and to her surprise it was still going.

_Well, that's a good thing I suppose. _Aside from the fact that she wasn't awake to maintain it, and make sure the house didn't catch fire.

Her shoulders gave a slight shrug and she lay back down on the makeshift bed she had made the previous night. The house was still dark, so it was either that the snow had trapped her in the house and the windows were covered, or it was still dark outside. Judging by how stiff her body felt, she guessed that it wasn't the latter.

She nestled back down into her blankets, deciding she wanted to sleep some more, and began to slip into another dream when she heard some noise outside.

"Huh?" She rubbed her eyes, but didn't get up. Instead, she just focused on listening to the noise she was now hearing.

"Come on Al! Get it out of the way!"

"I'm trying brother! I don't see you trying any harder than I am!"

"Oh," Winry gave a small laugh, thinking that she would get an earful from Ed when he got into the house._ I guess I deserve it this time._

Content, lying on her comfy pillows, she waited for the brothers to gain entrance into the house. It took a few minutes but in due time they finally got in.

"Winry!" Ed and Al yelled out into the house, Ed almost breaking the door when he flung it open.

_In three, two, one._

Winry shut her eyes when she knew Ed was just around the corner, and feigned unconscious, not wanting to be scolded for lying just yet.

Quickly, Ed turned the corner and made his way into the living room, where he spotted a sleeping Winry, looking completely relaxed.

His heart finally stopped its excessive beating, and slowed down to a normal pace, his eyes gaining a soft look.

Al chuckled, "I told you brother."

"Geez," He walked up to Winry and squatted down to put his hand to her forehead, "Here you are, sleeping without a care in the world, while I was pulling my hair out worrying about you two."

Once his hand told him that she was a good and normal temperature, he moved it down to her stomach, placing it softly right on top. A small kick reassured him that the baby was also okay, and once he knew that, his worries were finally put to rest.

He carefully placed his hands under her legs and under her back, careful not to wake her up, "Up you go."

Her lifted her with ease, took her up the stairs to their room, and laid her on top of the bed, "You just stay here while we get the snow off the house."

He leaned in and gave her a peck on the forehead, but was held down by Winry's arms now wrapped around his torso.

"Heh, I knew you were awake." Ed spoke into her hair.

"If you knew, why didn't you say something?" she breathed into the crisp and chilly air of their room.

"Because you usually fall asleep quickly if I don't say anything directly to you." He stood up and looked Winry in the eyes, "Please don't worry me like that."

Winry's face heated at his words, half in embarrassment, and half in guilt. "I'm sorry." She spoke the words as she got up and embraced Ed again, tears threatening to overflow. "I promise I won't do it again."

In response Ed also wrapped his arms around her, and pulled back just enough to give her a sweet kiss, happy to be home.

All too soon, they pulled apart and Winry give him the smile she always gave him when Ed came home, "I'll get started on some breakfast for the two of you. That snow will probably be a huge pain in the ass, so I'll make it a little special."

Ed's face lit up, a bit of drool coming out of the side of his mouth, "That sounds awesome!"

Winry giggled and disappeared out of the room and down the stairs, "Oh, Ed I forgot something!" She yelled back up to him, "We have to go to the doctors tomorrow! So make sure you get everything done today!"

Ed froze in the room, _that's right... we get to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. Hmm, I haven't really thought about that._

He let his mind wander a bit as he went to help Winry down the stairs, thinking about what it would be like to have a boy or a girl.

And now, the question was on Ed's mind as well.

* * *

**A/N:** Not much to say here except let me know what you think!c:


	10. Chapter 10

Winry frowned as she moved about the house, idly cleaning up rooms that didn't need cleaning to begin with. It seemed that the snow would take much longer to clear up than she had originally thought, and in result that meant that the long awaited doctor's appointment to determine the baby's gender, was cancelled.

And that brings her back to the present, dusting the dust free shelves and cleaning her already shining with cleanliness tools. After a few minutes she put everything away, and she decided that her workshop held no further work for her, not that it did in the first place. So, she slipped her wrench back onto her person and restlessly made her way out of the basement.

Al and Mei had left the house in an attempt to reach the grocers, "attempting" because of the snow. They were hoping to get some food for tonight's dinner, since Winry had practically scarfed down their entire pantry while she was alone the other night, so trying to pass the time with them wasn't an option at the moment.

Her mood was deteriorating rather quickly, and for some reason she felt like picking a fight with Ed. She knew she had no reason to do so, but in her mind it would at least give her something to do.

Knowing that he would most likely be in the living room reading a book, she swiftly made her way there, her feet chilling at the touch of the cold wooden floor.

"Edward." She spoke his name with an audible annoyance as she appeared in the door way.

"Yeah, what's up Winry?" He poked his head out from behind the book, giving it one last glance before turning his attention to Winry.

She stared at him for a moment, trying to find some button to push, anything to set him off even a little bit, but it was no use. His entire being was just exuding relaxation and calmness.

"Damn it." She muttered and stalked out of the room, leaving Ed with a look of confusion claiming his face.

_Why'd he have to be calm today? I would've gladly taken it any other day, but noo, the one day I'm itching for an argument, he has to be like that…_ She sighed as she made her way into their room, opening a window when she did.

The chilled air wafted into the room, surrounding her ankles and giving her a slight shiver. The cold wasn't exactly a bad thing for her at the moment, she need to cool down some.

Liking the way the curtains flowed with the air coming in, she wandered off to their bed and fell backwards onto it, closing her eyes and listening to the flap sounds the curtain was making.

After laying there for some time, she scolded herself for trying to pick a fight in the first place.

"But there really is nothing to do!" She tried to defend the part of her driven by emotion, against the more logical side.

Sighing, she decides to pick up where she left of earlier, and pushes herself off of the bed, beginning to clean what's already clean.

She walks over to the side of the bed and begins dusting the fairly large night table next to it. Placed on the table is a photo from their wedding day, and she can't help but giggle a little when she sees it.

A smile warms her face as she recalls those events. _Man, that sure was one crazy day_.

Now with the thoughts of their wedding day running through her mind, she tosses the duster in her hand into the corner of the room and bends down, peeking underneath the bed.

"Ah! There it is." She reaches under, which is no easy task for her pregnant self, and pulls out their wedding album.

The soft yellow album was decorated with thin white lace around the border, and a photo of Ed and her right in the middle, the album being a handmade gift from granny. Surrounding their picture though, are the signed words from all of their friends. Some sincere, some teasing, but words they cherished all the same.

Taking the album in hand, she stands back up and places herself in the middle of their bed, positioning multiple pillows behind her to support her back.

She flips open the album, and the first photo she sees is herself in her room back at granny's house, her face lit up at having just put on her wedding dress.

As she turns the page, she begins to recall that day from the very beginning, the sequence of the day flooding back into her mind.

* * *

9 months previous-

"Granny!" Was the first word Winry said on the day her wedding would take place.

As soon as she had woken up her nerves were all over the place, excitement and nervousness being her strongest feelings that morning; in short, she was on edge.

"G-granny!" She ran down the stairs in her wrench printed pajamas, making her hair fly wildly behind her face.

She skidded to a stop in the kitchen, the place where granny usually was in the mornings, and looked to her Pinako who was nonchalantly pouring coffee into her cup.

"How can you be so calm?!" Winry exploded at Pinako's relaxedness.

"I'm calm because I'm not the one getting married today." Her retort was short and to the point, nonetheless making Winry's face go redder than a strawberry.

Embarrassment would've been and understatement.

Winry's lips formed into a tight line, trying to keep her squeal stuffed inside her throat. Her eyes were wide with the sudden full realization that within a few hours, she would be a married woman. Married to Edward.

She almost fainted on the spot. The only thing that kept her upright was her grip on the table top. _Alright, okay. Clam down Winry, breathe._She thought to herself as her airways filled and emptied with air, the dryness of her throat receding and going back to its normal state.

Pinako watched her granddaughter, waiting until she calmed herself down to speak again.

"Well, now that you're not wheezing, I've got something to give you."

"Come on now. We don't have all day." Pinako motioned for Winry to follow her up the stairs. Unsure of what was going on, Winry followed her granny in confusion.

Pinako led them into her room, and Winry went to sit on the bed while her granny rummaged through one of her drawers, obviously hunting for something.

_I wonder what this is about…_

Just as the thought finished in her mind, it seemed that her granny had found what she had been looking for.

"Here, this is for you." A solemn expression crossed her face as she began speaking.

Winry looked to her granny's hand and saw that it held a small, old looking envelope. After a moment's hesitation, she took the envelope into her own hand, looking up to her granny's eyes before opening it. The question "what is this?" showing through her eyes.

Still wearing that solemn expression, Pinako spoke again, "Your mother left this for you."

Winry's heartbeat sped up at that statement, making the bittersweet tears threaten to overflow.

"I don't know if she had ever intended for you to see it. Though, with the type of work they did, it was no surprise that she had written something like this ahead of time."

Pinako moved from her position of standing in front of Winry and went to sit beside her on the bed, taking hold of her hand, "It was a few days after we had heard of their deaths that I found this. I was sorting through some of her things when I came across it. There were only two letters in that drawer, one addressed to you and one to me."

The tears began to fall silently down Winry's face, leaving two glistening streaks on her cheeks, and disappearing when they came to the corners of her mouth.

"The letter addressed to me explained what your letter was about among other things, but I know that she would want you to read this today."

Without another word, Pinako got up slowly and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her, subtly giving Winry her privacy while she reads the letter.

_A letter from my mom, huh?_

Carefully, she tore open the envelope, not wanting something that her mom had left her, and unfolded the three-fold letter.

It read the following-

"_My dear Winry, if you're reading this, then that means that I'm no longer with you. I'm sorry. I know that it must've been hard for you and your grandmother, but I'm sure that you'll let time heal yourself. You're a tough, willful young girl, I know that you'll be strong and live out every day knowing that we've never left you._

_I've actually written a lot of these letters, you know? But, this is the only one I can bring myself to let you read. I ended up throwing all of the others away, knowing that this one would be the most important. Now, onto the matter at hand._

_Ahem. Congratulations my darling! You're getting married! You're all grown up and making a life for yourself, your father and I are so very proud of you. If I had to bet, I'd say that little trouble maker Edward is the lucky man. Am, I right? Haha! If I'm wrong, then I'm sure he's a kind and handsome young man. I'd expect nothing less of my daughter!_

_Now if you're anything like me, you must be fretting. God knows I was a mess the morning of my wedding day! It was so nerve-wracking! Just the thought of everyone staring at me while I walked down the aisle and what if I accidentally tripped?!- oh, sorry, I'm putting more worries into your head aren't I? I apologize!_

_Anyhow, I'm writing this to tell you that it's perfectly normal to be nervous! The only thing is that you can't let it get in the way of your big day! It's a day where you throw all worries away and just focus on what is going to make you happy. It's the beginning as your life as a wife, and the gateway to your life as a mother. It truly is a wonderful thing._

_I'm sorry that we can't be there to see it. I truly am. It must be hard for you, but I know that you have wonderful people surrounding you who can help you through it._

_It's such a wondrous, marriage. It was one of the best choices of my life dear. It gave me your father and you. My darling little girl and my dearest husband._

_Now, go on and have yourself an amazing day! Be careful, don't get into trouble and have fun!_

_I love you Winry, be happy._

_With a love that could flood the world, your mother."_

End of letter.

Her tears stopped, and instead they were replaced by a huge grin. Her eyes wandered over her mother's words, rereading some parts and laughing at her previous worries.

She could practically feel her mother's emotions through the letter. The parts where she would laugh, they parts where she would be serious, and the parts where she might have cried, they were all there. It was like her mother was there on the bed with her, telling her all of this.

"Ahh." Winry felt a single tear roll down her face as she sighed.

Of course it hurt that her mother couldn't be there to comment on her dress and help her with her hair or that her father couldn't walk her down the aisle and give her away. It all hurt, so very much. But she knew that she wasn't alone it this hurt. Ed was experiencing the same pain, and yet he manages to put a huge, sometimes idiotic, grin on his face.

She stood up and gained a determined look on her face, _Mom, Dad, I promise that I will be confident and happy on this day. I'll experience it for the three of us, okay?_

With a giggle, she smiled to herself and made her way to the door, finally ready to begin the day.

_Thank you, mom._

* * *

**A/N: **A letter from mom. A nice idea, huh? I made myself sad while writing it...

Anyway, here's another chapter! Let me know what you think!


	11. Chapter 11

Ed moved up the stairs, quietly as to not alert Winry of his presence. Things had quieted down a bit after his strange encounter with her earlier, so he assumed she had gone to rest in their room.

With the wooden floor creaking ever so slightly, he came upon the room and saw a sleeping Winry curled up in the middle of the bed.

As he walked closer, he gently brushed her hair out of her face and noticed that she was extremely cold. His head swiveled around for the source and saw that she'd left the window open.

"Honestly," he gave into a small chuckle, "when will she ever not do that?"_ She hates going to the doctor, and yet she does things that could easily get her sick._

Quietly, he shut the window and walked back over to the bed. Not wanting to wake Winry, he decided to leave her in the middle of the bed and just move the blanket to cover her. As he moved things about, he heard a small thud on the floor.

He looked down, and to his surprise, their wedding album was lying on the floor, as girly looking as ever. If it had been up to him, it'd have been decorated completely different. Maybe some flames on the side?

Snapping out of his thoughts, he picked up the album and looked back to Winry. Her face was somehow making him feel extremely lax so, he decided to stay there.

Ed moved onto the bed and placed himself so that he was sitting next Winry, his back reclined against the bed's headboard.

Once he was settled, he flipped open the book. The album opened on the picture he wished wasn't there. He had tried to get Winry to throw it away countless times, but to no avail.

It was photo of him at his most unmanly state. His face was completely red, his eyes were huge, and he remembered his nerves being shocked with anxiety. It was a blow to his manhood, this picture. But, Winry had insisted that it was "cute" and she refused to dispose of it. And only God knows what would happen to him if he attempted to throw it away himself. Al would probably find his half-conscious body somewhere in the woods.

Without giving another glance to the photo, he turned the page and saw a picture of himself when he had regained his sanity.

Ed looked at the picture for a few moments, and shuddered. That day had been a nightmare, but still one of the best days of his life. The night mare part being how nervous, and embarrassed he had been, and the best being that he had actually married Winry. Thinking back on it, it seemed ridiculous how nervous he'd been.

* * *

_Okay. This is fine. I can do it. There's no logical reason for me to be nervous. She loves me and I love her. It's not like she's going to run away when she sees me. Oh shit. What if she runs away?! No. No. She won't do that. It's fine. Damn it! Why do I have walk down first?! The last thing I want is to be stared at. Shit. I should've run away with her when I had the chance. I didn't even want a wedding like this anyway! It's not about what I want though. As long as she's happy with this then I guess it's okay. What if she doesn't like it though? Agh! Shut up! No worries, its still morning. I still have time to calm down…_

Alphonse, who was standing in the doorway, stared at his brother from across the room. Ed was still lying in bed, his blanket covering his whole body with the exception of his face. And oh, his face. It was priceless. It took everything Al had to not burst out into laughter. He knew that his brother would be nervous, but not to this extent.

"Brother, you have to get up now. You've overslept. " Al voiced his presence into the room, but Ed still didn't move.

"Broooother." Again, no response.

_Geez._ Al pretended to all of a sudden see someone coming down the hall, "Oh! Good morning Winry!"

"WHAT?" Ed flew up from his bed and ran to the other side of the room, trying to hide, Al guessed.

"Good. I thought that would get you up." Al laughed as he went to give his brother a pat on his back, "Today's the big day brother! You ready?!"

Ed turned his head and flashed Alphonse a look of pure horror.

"H-how?! How do I get ready?! What do I do?! What if I mess up?! "

"Calm down brother. There's no way you can possibly mess up. You've been told everything you need to do, and you only say what the priest tells you to repeat. It's all set up and ready for the two of you."

Ed was only partly eased by this. _At least I won't come up blank on what to say…_

Alphonse began speaking again as he left the room, "I spoke to granny just a minute ago, and she told me we need to leave the house in about an hour, so hurry and get a move on."

Just as Al had disappeared around the corner, he popped his back into Ed's sight and said one more thing, "Oh, and granny said that Winry looked stunning in her dress."

Ed reddened at the statement.

His hand reached up and covered the small smile that was forming on his face, of course she'd look beautiful…

_Wait… What if I go red in front of everyone when I see her?!_

With this new thought in mind, Ed ran after his brother, calling out to him in comedic worry, "Alphoooooonse!"

* * *

Winry twirled about in her room with a huge grin plastered on her face. Her hair had been done in a slightly messy, yet elegant up-do, with two fish-tail braids lining each side of her head. She had also had her makeup done, but since she wasn't a big fan putting all of that on her face, there was only a slight hint of it.

And finally, she had put on the dress that granny had been keeping a secret from her all this time.

"This dress is beautiful! Where'd you find it granny?"

"Actually, it was your mothers dress." Pinako, who was standing behind Winry with her arms behind her back, replied to the now still Winry.

"Oh."

Pinako moved towards her, and started to adjust the dress. Smoothing out some spots, and tugging down on others, "She'd always told me that if they ever had a daughter, she would've wanted her to wear this dress, and thank God that it fits."

She stopped adjusting for a moment, and stepped back, taking in the full view of Winry, "You look so much like her." Pinako laughed at the astounding resemblance, "It's bringing back the memories of her wedding day."

Winry's smile was brought back to her face. The thought of someone thinking that she resembled her mother was enough to put her in a good mood for a long while.

"Thanks granny." Winry laughed, and wiped away a small tear that had escaped.

"Well," Pinako clapped her hands together once, "are you ready to leave?"

Turning to the full mirror once more, Winry took a deep breath, gave her parents another thank you, and turned back to granny, "Yeah, I'm ready."

The pair shuffled out of her room and down to the party of bride's maids who were waiting down below. She could hardly hear their squeals of happiness as she appeared at the foot of the stairs. Her thoughts were now in another place, focused on what Ed would be doing at this moment.

She smiled to herself;_ I hope he's having fun._

* * *

The hour Ed had to get ready had flown by in what seemed like an instant, and he was now in the room reserved for him at the only church in Resembool. He was wearing a black tux, and his hair was done up as usual, a braid not feeling too appropriate for the occasion by Al's standards.

The door opened and Al, who was also clothed in a tux, appeared in the room with Pinako not far behind him.

"Granny?" Ed question as he saw her walk into the room.

"Hello Edward." She gave him a glance from top to bottom, "I'm surprised you actually followed what I said and wore a tux."

"O-of course I would!" A slightly embarrassed Ed replied to granny.

"Well, not that it matters. You still look like a rebellious child to me."

"Come on granny! I'm not a kid anymore…" Ed scratched the back of his head as he trailed off. A part of him knew that granny would always see him as a pipsqueak who didn't want to drink his milk.

"That's right, and you're about to be wed my granddaughter."

"Y-yea-"

"Edward, listen to what I'm going to say alright." Pinako cut him off before he finished.

At her own pace, Pinako went to sit down on one of the chairs provided in the room. And Ed, noticing the sudden change in atmosphere, went to sit across from her.

Once she sat, she cleared her throat and began to speak again. "As I just said, you're about to make my only granddaughter your wife." Ed couldn't help but redden when she said this, "I trust you know what you're doing, I won't question that since you took the initiative to ask her in the first place, but what comes after this is what matters most."

Al shifted a bit in the corner, feeling slightly awkward, but wanting to hear what granny had to say nonetheless. After all, it would apply to him someday too.

"One thing that I'm sure you've thought about, at least I hope you have, is having a family sometime down the line. If you two can restrain yourselves that is."

"Granny!" Ed busted out in embarrassment, his face yet again going completely red. _What the hell is this?! Did she come in here to make me even more nervous?! _That was honestly the _**one**_ thing he didn't need to hear. He was nervous enough already and now he had "that" on his mind.

"Umm," Al sounded from the back of the room, "I think that's my cue to leave…" Al, who was also red in the face, quickly retreated to the door. _I can hear this when it's my turn later…_

_Damn it Alphonse! Don't leave me alone in here!_

"Hahaha!" Granny began laughing at the scene the two boys had just played out, "You two are still just like you were when you were younger. Except now," She gave a glance back at Edward, "You're both wearing tux's and one of you is about to get married."

A sigh escaped her mouth, "Whatever you do Edward, wherever you plan on going, whatever you chase after next, don't forget the promise you're about to make."

Ed's hand reached up to the back of his head again, signaling to granny that he was clueless about what to say.

"Well, that's just about it," she got up from her chair while speaking, "Your mother and father would be proud, so don't worry Edward."

Suddenly remembering something, Pinako walked back over to Edward and placed a small piece of folded paper into his hands.

"It's from Winry. Read that and hurry out of the room. It's almost time for you to walk down."

The door clicked shut, and Ed unfolded the paper, reading it to himself.

_Well, I just suddenly had the thought to write you a little something. If you're freaking out as much as I was earlier, then I thought I should help you out a bit._

_I love you. So don't panic or anything like that. It'll all turn out great!_

_See you in a few, Winry._

A warm feeling washed throughout Ed from his head down to his toes, and a lighthearted grin spread on his face. _Yeah, it'll be great._

There was a knock on the door, and Al appeared, "Alright brother! It's now or never!"

Shuddering at the word "never" and feeling welcomed by the word "now", Ed walked out of the room, giving his brother a big grin, and placed Winry's note in his chest pocket.

_Thanks, Winry._

* * *

**A/N: **I have found that I can't keep a straight face while writing/reading fluff. It always contorts into this ungodly expression.

Thanks for all the reviews!c:


	12. Chapter 12

Alphonse and May walked into the house with their grocery bags in hand. They'd just gotten back from the only grocers open in Resembool because of the freak snowstorm that had occurred two days ago. Everything else was still snowed in, so they had to walk pretty far just to get there and back.

"It's still way too cold out there!" May complained in her squeaky, yet cute voice as they entered the house.

"Yeah, it's never been this cold around this time of year." Alphonse replied as he held the door open for her.

They both shuffled their way into the kitchen, and began putting the food away when May stopped her movement.

"What is it?" Al asked.

She pivoted herself around and face Al, craning her neck upwards, "It's quiet."

Al stopped for a second and realized that she was right. No one had come to meet them yet. "Huh, that's odd." He carried on putting the food away, "Whenever I come here, the first thing I hear is either arguing or laughing."

"Really?" May asked in disbelief, "They aren't just quiet sometimes?"

Al laughed whole-heartedly, truly wondering if they were ever a time, "No. Never. At least not that I've seen. I'm going to see where they are, so do you mind finishing up here?"

May smiled , and Xio-mei saluted to Alphonse, "Sure thing!"

"Thanks." He returned the smile, and made his way through the house, searching all the rooms until he finally came upon their bedroom.

Slowly, he poked his head in and smiled at the sight. Both Ed and Winry were asleep on their bed. Ed had his back against the headboard, his hand on his stomach, and was snoring slightly with his wide-open mouth. Winry on the other hand, looked completely blissful. She was on her side with one hand place on her belly, and the other one had a tight grasp on Ed's free hand.

This would've been a picture perfect moment if what happened next didn't occur.

Suddenly, Al heard Winry begin mumbling to herself, "I….I'mnahrellyembarassed. Ms…..MsGrashia! M… May! N-no! Shtopit!"

And with that, the hand that was peacefully placed upon her belly flew up in a fast movement and connected with Ed's jaw almost as if it were attracted by gravity.

"WH-WHAT?!" Ed immediately rolled off of the bed and stood straight up with his head swiveling around.

"Ahh, shuddup Ed…" Winry mumbled into the room, having been woken by Ed's shout.

"What the hell was that Winry?!" Ed yelled to the now completely aware Winry.

"What are you talking about Edward?" She sat up and scratched her head, the look of annoyance quickly spreading throughout her features.

"You PUNCHED me!"

Her head jerked towards him now, "I did not!"

"Then why is my jaw hurting like this?!"

"I don't know! Maybe you hit yourself!"

"Why the hell would I hit myself?!"

"Maybe because you had a nightmare about being short again!"

Ed's face turned scarlet at the words she spoke, "I said to never talk about that!"

"Well it's your fault for waking me up with yelling!"

"I only yelled because you punched me!"

"I did not!"

Back over at the entrance to their room, Alphonse sighed. _If I don't intervene now they'll be like this for the rest of the day…_

"Umm… excuse me."

"WHAT?!" They both turned the heads and spoke in unison.

"May and I brought back the food you were asking for Winry."

"Oh really?!" her face swiftly turned from annoyance to joy at the mention of food.

She moved herself off of the bed and walked over to Al, exiting the room. "Thanks a bunch!"

"Hey!" Ed called out as he began to walk after her, but Al stopped him before he could.

"Let it go brother…" He tried to reason with him, not really wanting the pair to argue when he was tired.

Ed gave him a childlike defiant look, but closed his eyes and sighed. "I guess." He scratched his head and looked back at the clock to see how long they had been asleep, "I mean it's not like she hasn't done this before." He chuckled and remembered how many times he'd be awoken with a fist to the jaw in the past few months.

Al laughed alongside his brother as they made their way down the stairs, "Really? She's done that more than once?"

"Pft. Yeah. Sometimes it's her hands, and others it's her feet. I think it's a problem." Ed conceded.

Al could only laugh at his brothers words. _They really are something._

"Hey! What are you laughing at?!"

"Edward!" Winry's voice traveled up the stairs, "Are you still yelling?! Quiet down already!"

"Says the woman who's yelling at me right now!" Ed took the last few stairs in one step in order to fully join they're new argument.

"I am not yelling!" She retorted with a mouthful of cookies.

"Then what do you call your voice level?" Ed replied, taking a few cookies for himself.

"I don't know! It's not yelling though!" she quickly snatched her food back, "And ask before you take them!"

"Why should I?! It's my food too, right!?"

"HELL NO!" Everyone could've sworn that Winry had grown tiny little horns on top of her head in that moment.

May, who had been stuck in the middle of the yelling, crept away and scooted herself next to Al who was observing the two, ready to jump in if things needed to be calmed down.

"Umm," she poked his shoulder, "Are they always like this?"

"Well, not all the time. It'll usually last for a few minutes, and then Winry will get her wrench out. The yelling will stop because Brother will have become unconscious."

May and Xio-Mei started shaking in fear, "And you still come over here all the time?"

"Hehe," Al revealed a sheepish grin, "Well yeah. I'm used to it already, so it doesn't faze me much. Anyway," he turned his attention from Ed and Winry, and made his way into the living room, pulling out some food he'd managed to take under Winry's radar, "we can leave them for now. Winry will most likely take her wrench out in a few seconds."

And he predicted correctly.

* * *

The night passed with Ed and Winry proceeding on as if they had never fought, Al feeling like it was just another usual night, and May feeling deeply confused about their household. It was now eight-thirty in the morning, and Winry was just waking up.

She stumbled out of bed, and stood up, feeling off. Something wasn't right. She looked around the room and listened to here if Ed was in the bathroom. After a few seconds, she determined she was alone and slowly walked into the restroom, feeling aches all over her body. Once she was in, she shut and locked the door behind her, moving to look at herself in the mirror.

The slightly purplish circles under her eyes, and the unnatural color of her skin were unmistakable. _Damn it… and I was feeling perfectly fine yesterday._

She knew her symptoms. Her body was aching, her throat was sore, her nose was runny, and she was feeling chills all over her body. _It's most likely the flu…_ she worriedly thought to herself as she went to shower. She'd had it once before, and it was _not_ a good experience. Her parent's had actually admitted her into a hospital because it had gotten so bad. Winry was the type of person who didn't get sick often, but when she did, it hit her pretty hard.

And if she were right, they weren't going to be able to wait until tomorrow to go see the doctor. She recalled when she had gone in last time and the doctor specifically pointed out to her that if she that she had come down with something, even if it were a cold, to do her best to go back right away. And because it might be something as serious as the flu…

She slowly moved out of the shower, not finishing her thought and dressed herself as quickly as she could. If she was sick, that meant that her baby was in danger.

"Ed!" Her raspy voice yelled out into the hallway, making her flinch from the pain. "Edward!" She called out again when there was no answer.

"Yeah Win?" His head peered around the bottom of the stairs as he answered. His hair was still down, and he had a slice of bread hanging from his mouth.

"We've got to get going now. The doctors should already be open…" A tired and shaking hand moved onto her belly when she finished.

"Huh?" Ed moved his body fully in the middle of the hall, instead of just looking around the corner, "I thought the appointment was tomorrow…" He sentence trailed off as he got a better look at Winry.

"Hey…" Immediately dropped the remains of the bread on the floor, and dashed up the stairs, "What's wrong?"

Instinctively, he placed one hand on her shoulder, and one on her forehead, shocked at how warm she was, "Shit! You're burning up!" He grabbed her hand, and began helping her down the stairs, "Come on, we'll leave right now."

"Edward…"

"What? What is it?!" he looked back to her with a frantic face.

"Your clothes?"

"Wha..?" He looked down at himself and noticed that he was clad in only his boxers and his black undershirt. "Whatever! It doesn't matter. We have to get you to the doctor. Alphonse and May aren't here right now, so I'm not letting you out of my sight." he shook it off swiftly and began helping her down the stairs once again. He wasn't stupid and from the looks of it, Winry was _very_ sick.

Once he'd found out that she was pregnant, he had looked up every book on it the Central Library had to offer. If the mother of the unborn child were to become even the slightest bit sick, it was best for her to immediately check in with her doctor. He had even gone so far as to ask Mrs. Hughes about her experience with Elicia.

"Edward," she spoke his name in a scolding tone, "I'm glad that you're worried for me, but please, just put some clothes on. If you go out like that, you'll also get sick. And besides," she did her best to give him a reassuring smile, "It's not that bad. I don't feel completely run down."

_It is bad, idiot…_ He thought to himself, and decided that she probably wouldn't go anywhere with him until he was clothed.

"Are you sure?"

She gave a small sigh and walked down the stairs past him, "Yes, I'm completely sure Ed. I'll be waiting on the couch, so hurry up okay?"

He stared after her until she disappeared into the living room. Once she was out of sight, he rubbed his forehead for a moment, trying to calm himself down, and then dashed up the stairs and into their room.

Quickly, he went into his drawer, pulled out a black long-sleeve shirt, some jeans and grabbed his shoes that were lying in the corner, somehow getting dressed as he went back down the stairs.

"Alright Winry!" He ran into the living room and saw her sitting there with her eyes closed, just as she said. "Let's hurry and get you to the doctor."

"Ah, alright." She opened her eyes and noticed that Ed had yet to put his hair up. "Come here a second Ed."

"What is it?" he slipped on his last shoe as he walked over to her.

"Sit and look at the window for a second."

"Why? We have to go now-"

"Just do it, please." She cut him off in a small voice, trying not hurt her throat any more than it already was.

Confusion spread over his features as he sat down and put his back towards Winry, facing the window as she instructed.

Winry pulled a rubber band from her wrist, and positioned herself so that she could braid Ed's hair. For some reason, she just wanted to see him with a braid since he hardly put down it like that anymore. His usual style now was just putting it up like she did.

So, with her fragile and shaking hands, she moved them into his soft hair and methodically began braiding it.

_Over and under….over and under._

_Oh, so this is what she meant…_ Ed thought to himself, and tried to fight the blush that was threatening to overcome his face. He tilted his head down just a bit, feeling useless. _She's scared..._

After a minute, and by some miracle, she managed to make a decent enough braid without her hands falling limp to her sides.

"Alright, I'm done." She put a fake smile on and managed to stand up without it breaking. "Let's go."

Her feet began moving towards the door, but she was suddenly stopped with by Ed's muscly arms winding around her chest.

"Winry." He breathed her name into her hair, looking straight ahead, "You and the baby are going to be alright. You don't have to be scared and tough it out by yourself."

He moved to the front of her and saw the tears dripping down her face. His chest tightened, and he hid her head in his arms, pulling her to him.

_Damn it…. _Winry wrapped her own arms around Ed in response to his gesture, _how does he see through me so easily?_

"Everything will be fine. Plus look on the bright side," he pulled back a bit and gave her a small reassuring smile, "We'll get to find out what the baby will be a day early."

"Mm." She nodded her head and smiled naturally this time.

Within a second of her smile, Ed whisked her up in his arms easily, and began walking towards the door.

"St-stop it Ed.." she spoke to him in embarrassment, not having the energy to yell, "I'm heavy…"

He just shook his head, "You're not heavy. And I'm not gonna make you walk the whole way there."

He flashed his toothy grin and made her heart flutter, "and besides," he continued, "I've lifted heaver."

And in an instant the mood was gone.

She whipped out her wrench and banged him on the head with all the force she could muster, immediately regretting it when her wrist began protesting the movement. Her head turned away from him, and she stayed mad for about a minute, until her pout faded away.

Feeling every bit as scared as she was before, they carried on, but it wasn't something she couldn't handle. They'd take it as it came, together.


	13. Chapter 13

The snow fell onto their heads slowly while they continued their walk to Winry's doctor. A flake landed and held its form on her hand for  
a second before her unnatural body heat melted it away. It tugged at her heart for some reason, seeing it fade away on the palm of her hand, like she had purposely made it disappear. A feeling that was completely unreasonable but she felt it nonetheless.

Weak as they were, she lifted her eyes from her hand, and scoped out the hills of Resembool. A familiar sight, exactly the same as whe she was a child, vast and some parts still unknown to her. Only now, it was blanketed in a bright white, threatening to make her eyes shut as she stared at it. The white made it beautiful, but also lonely in a way. Like that white needed a friend to accompany it, just as Ed was accompanying her through the snowy ground.

Edward had been walking and carrying her for a solid forty minutes already, and his breath was still even; he hadn't shown one sign of fatigueyet. It was a fact that he was well built and healthy, but she hadn't though he was capable of this. Winry was already in her second trimester, so she wasn't exactly a lightweight anymore.

_And yet…_ She shut her eyes, and laid her head against his chest, _he's still carrying me._

"How's your leg Ed? The cold isn't hurting you is it?" she asked him after a few more minutes of walking.

"It's fine." He looked down at her and flashed his usual grin, "No need to worry about me. You're automail's the best in the world!"

She laughed to herself despite the gut wrenching pain in her throat and basically her whole body._ It's really amusing when he tries to cheer me up with being nice. I love it, but it's just way too funny not to laugh at it.  
_  
Thinking back for a moment, she recalled the time years ago when the brothers had gone out to restore themselves. Gone for months at a time, without even a single word from them, and then they'd suddenly appear broken and bruised, the complete opposite of their goal. And then there were the times when she had actually experienced what they had to go through first hand. The dangers, the people, the emotions, it was all overbearing, and yet they had still refused to confide in her with anything. Though she understood why they had to keep quiet for a time, it had still been so frustrating, waiting and hoping that when they came back they'd at least be breathing.

The differences between then and now were worlds apart, but still so familiar. If someone had told her back then that in a few years she'd be married to Ed and pregnant with a house of their own and free lives, she would've been way too hopeful for her own good.

It had been a far off dream, one that at times seemed impossible and others just within reach, and the fact that it was now reality was enough. And because of this feeling of content and happiness, she was scared to death.

Being pregnant had brought to the surface many things that she hadn't known existed within her and others that she had tired to suppress. Like her knowledge that life in itself is a double-edged sword.

Living and dying, these are two inevitable facts of every person's life. She knew this, it was basic knowledge for everyone, but when you go deeper than that, the meaning changes. You'll live your life, enjoying every moment, but all the while knowing that your end is going to come. You won't know when, but you know it's going to happen. And when you do die, you just have to hope you're lucky enough to not have regrets, wishing you had done more for the people you love.

You'll live your life, happy or not, but it'll all just _end_ one day.

Winry knew her fair share of death, and so had Ed. Their whole family knew it all too well. They knew what it felt like to lose their parents, and it struck her motionless when she thought about their child having to go through the same thing. There weren't words to describe just how far you could fall because of it.

And throughout the course of realizing just how important Ed and this baby had become to her, a fear of her own mortality had reared its head. Completely ridiculous as it was, it was there rearing itself in her mind at random times.

In an incredibly flashy way.

_Ridiculous._

* * *

Ed, panting and terribly fatigued, set a sleeping Winry down on one of the doctors bed's, grimacing when he saw her flinch from the movement. About half way through their walk she'd passed out, prompting him to begin running without any regard to himself. The cold outside was an aid to him as it kept him cool for the most part, but now that he was still, he felt the heat from his pumping blood start to take over his limbs.

"Ah damn it." He wheezed and sunk down into a chair next to Winry's bed. Despite that fact that he'd kept the northern automail he'd gotten from her years ago, his leg was still aching badly from the cold, making for a terrible mixture of feelings swirling inside of him. And of course it wasn't of any help that he was worried out of his mind.

He looked back to Winry and became even more unsettled at the sight. Sickness in itself was traumatic thing for him. It didn't matter what kind of sickness it was, as long as it was making someone unhealthy, he began panicking inside, and not without reason either. It also didn't matter that he was now an adult, and some people might think he should be able to handle this sort of thing by now; it was something he didn't want to happen or even see.

Of course he wasn't so paranoid as to freak out over something like a cold, it was a bit worrying, but not terrifying. He'd had many a cold himself, but this was different. Winry, his expectant wife, was lying on a hospital bed, sweating, panting, and wincing with every movement. This was a plausible thing to be frantically concerned over.

He smoothed his hands over his face and through his hair, rubbing his eyes as they came back down. The pain in his joints were starting to become more evident and if he didn't start moving his body would get too stiff for comfort; plus the waiting was beginning to piss him off.

His legs swung out in front on him, standing up and put more pressure on his knees then he knew he should've. Ed walked over to Winry, and wiped her hair away from her slightly sweaty face, grimacing at her condition.

"I'll be right back." He voiced to her, and gave her hand a slight squeeze before he sprinted out the door, not bothering to waste time and shut it himself.

Luckily, the door shut without much noise and didn't even register to Winry's ears. She stayed still with her eyes shut, trying to block out the physical pain with a will power that was fading.

Though the door didn't disturb her concentration, a sudden stabbing pain that appeared in her abdomen did.

In a second, her eyes snapped open and her body shifted unwillingly, trying to cease the pain and Ed who was yelling at a male doctor to help his wife heard a shrill scream across the hospital, making every sense in his body drop.

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry I"ve left you so long with out an update! Things happen and I tend to be forgetful... But now I bring you a chapter with a cliffhanger! Amazing aren't I?

Kidding. But in other words, I'll update more often.

I don't know if I've told you this, but this fic actually already has eighteen chapters on my deviantart. The reason for this is I had originally started the fic on that site, but when I later got my ff account, I figured I may as well add this story here too. I didn't want to upload it all at once, because where's the fun in that? I wanted to see how a whole different group of people reacted to the story... I've revised bits and pieces of the chapters uploaded here, fixing a few typos, correcting sentences, but nothing is completely different. c:

So anyway, if you'd like to read more, just go to my dA account Joyfuleejoyful. deviantart. com

Or if you'd like to wait, all I ask is for you to wait one and a half days time between each chapter until it's caught up.

Fair, no? Hope you enjoy.c:


	14. Chapter 14

A screech pierced his ears. Invading, filling his head and slowly making its way throughout his body, leaving a stinging pain in the tips of his toes, the tips of his fingers, and in his abdomen. It sent a message to his brain, telling him to run, to find his way back to the room he had only just left, and take away the pain that was causing that soul crushing scream.

Apparently, his legs had more sense than his brain because he'd already made it to the door when he was in the middle of his thought process. He flung it open without hesitation, the door emitting a loud creaking noise, and was met with the sight of Winry curled up into a circle, frantically clutching at her abdomen, trying, from what it looked like, to grab a hold of anything and squeeze the death out of it for a little bit of tension release. Her face was wrought with sheer horror, she knew exactly what was happening.

But to the terror of both her and Ed, it was still too early.

* * *

"**_AAAAANNNNNGHHHHH!_**" she let out a wail from her mouth, not caring that it literally destroyed her already aching throat in the process.

Her eyes opened and she looked down, horrified at the sight of that clear liquid spreading out on the bed that she was put to rest on.

_Wh- no i-it's still too ear-_

"_**AAAAAAGGGGHH!**_" another gut-wrenching pain swept through her, cutting off the thought process, and making her body feel numb.

"WINRY!" She faintly heard Edward yell out to her as she felt a strong hand take hold of her right hand.

She struggled to face him, her neck protesting to the movement, and open her eyes to see him. Through the hallucinatory haze that was obstructing her vision, she saw her grief stricken husband. His face was contorted in ways that she'd never seen on him before, adding yet another pain to her body.

"DOCTOR!" Ed's rough voice, thick with emotion and something else she couldn't quite recongnise, roared outwards and into the hall, a plea for someone to come and help her.

"E-Edwa- _**AAAAAANNNGHH!**_" Another sudden pain cut her voice off, the air in her lungs pouring out with her scream.

"Damn it! **WHERE THE HELL IS THE DOCTOR?!**" Ed fumed. Half of him wanted to go out and hunt the doctor's ass down, but the other part didn't dare to leave Winry's side.

Then suddenly, time stopped for a moment, and his trembling, which he hadn't known had started, stopped. Tears were the cause; tiny, glistening tears began softly running down Winry's face. It wasn't surprising that she would be shedding tears, anyone going through what she was would be bawling their eyes out but, there was something else there, something hidden. There was another reason other than pain for those tears.

Foolish as it was in a time like that, whatever part of his brain that was still functioning correctly tried to sort out what it was that he saw. Though it may have just been his senses going haywire, the thought wouldn't leave his head.

"What is it?!" The doctor Winry had been seeing rushed into the room, and time started again, "What's happe-" The doctor stopped her sentence short when she caught sight of Winry and the bed which was now soaked.

"_Shit_." She hissed out the word with an understanding of the situation. It was bad. Just plain evil really.

Without another second to spare, the doctor rushed back to the doorway and called for more people, nurses, surgeons, etc. They all piled into the room within seconds one after another, one woman rolling in a new bed for Winry.

"I'm sorry sir, but you need to move now." The bed rolling woman, lightly moved him aside, and along with a few other people they counted to three, and lifted Winry off of the tainted mattress onto the new one.

"W-wait." Ed sputtered for a minute, confused as to what was going on.

They began rolling Winry out of the room, Ed following closely behind. The lights of the hallway shown on them almost blindingly as they left the room. The doctor began yelling for people to move out of the way, giving orders, and asking if the surgeons had prepared yet.

"Surgeons?!" Ed voiced his question, and hastily grabbed the shoulder of Winry's doctor, "Where are you taking her?!"

The doctor shook his hand off and replied, "_Please,_" she strained the word, "just hold on a moment."

While they were exchanging words, the group had appeared at a set of doors at the end of the hallway. Tall and intimidating, they stood there, awaiting the next person whose fate would be decided on the other side.

The bed rollers swiftly opened the doors and began pushing Winry into the other hall, further away from Ed. "The hell?!" he moved to stop them from taking her, "What's going on?!"

Just as he was about to reach her, the doctor grasped his shoulder from behind, letting Winry go while he registered her hold on him.

"You can't go in there Edward. I'm sorry but you'll have to wait it out the in waiting room from here."

"THE HELL I CAN'T GO IN!" he spat back. He'd be damned if he couldn't go in there with her.

"You can't! It's not safe for Winry and the baby! They need to be kept in a completely sterile environment and we don't have the time, or the staff to get you situated for that!" she replied to him with a raised voiced herself. "Let me explain to you what's going on." The doctor paused and took in a deep breath, looking extremely pained as to what she was about to say.

"I'm sure you've gathered that your wife is in labor, and I'm also sure you know that it is far too early for that. Winry is only around six and a half months pregnant, so it's positive that the baby is still underdeveloped. Right now, we have no other choice but to perform a C-section on her."

The doctor lifted up her hands, and rubbed her face in exhaustion, "And to make matters worse, she's ill. With the virus she has wreaking havoc on her body strength….." the doctor paused a moment, her nose going slightly red as her eyes threatened to unleash tears, "There's one way to say this, and I truly sorry I have to, but… Winry and possibly even the baby might not make it through the day."

The doctor moved forward, and gave Ed a light squeeze of a hug, "I'll do everything in my power to help them."

And with that she left him and disappeared behind those intimidating doors.

After they closed and stilled, a tear stricken Ed fell to his knees, putting his forearms on the floor, "It's still too damn early..." His shaky voice, wrought with horror breathed out into the chilled, empty hallway.

* * *

**A/N:** WELL, I apologize for the lack of content in this chapter... there was only so much I could do at the time and this was the result! I'll update soon though, soooo...c:

Thanks for reading!


	15. Chapter 15

His eyes opened to see the hospital the same as when he had first closed them. Unchanged, and moving on with it's normal routine, oblivious to what was actually happening inside of it. Not that the building could even feel anything, it was a stack of bricks, and Edward knew that.

Unfeeling, and cold, why would he even consider the fact of it's feelings in the first place? It didn't make sense. Hell, nothing in his mind was making sense. Not when a blatant possibility was staring him in the face. It was like a confrontation with Truth all over again. No, it _was_ a confrontation with Truth. It was a truth that was waiting for it's chance to become real, or fade back into the place where all untouched possibilities went. Where _was_ that place exactly? No, he dismissed the thought from his mind. He didn't want to know. Wherever it was it must've been some type of hell hole.

The truth anyway, being the fact that his meaning of _existence _could die that day. Winry, and the baby she had only been pregnant with for six and a half months, could die in a cold, sterile operating room. When he thought about it, Winry would probably much rather die surrounded by her gears and wrenches, a scent of oil in the air.

He mentally slapped himself.

_What the hell was that Ed? Why would you even consider where Winry would most likely want to die?! It's only a possibility! A fucking possibility! There's two sides to this! When they manage to make it through, even if the baby will be months early, he or she will be likely to live! It's not completely uncommon for premature infants to be born! It happens all the time, and in almost all of the cases that children survived! So stop acting like an idiot, and steel yourself up! You're better than this! Winry would kill you three times over with that wrench you got her if she saw you like this! Al would have to drag your sorry ass over to your grave, and you would deserve it too!_

The desperate part of himself began arguing with the side that had almost given up. He could literally see it in his head. A gloomy version of him, a man who looked like he was about to be burned at the stake, and the other a fuming devil with a glint in his eyes that refused to believe bullshit like Winry would die from this.

He shifted in his seat, and peered over at his left. Alphonse and May had joined him in his wait for any type of news. It seemed as though the doctor had called, or had someone call, Al and May before they could make it to Central. From what Al said, they had only just gotten half way when he heard a call had come for him. When they reached the hospital, Ed still hadn't moved from his spot in the middle of the hall. He had only adjusted his position from forearms and knees, to sitting crossed-legged, staring at his fists.

The pair had walked into the hall and found him a pathetic mess. He could only wonder what was going through their minds, but as he looked up when two feet appeared in front of him, and was met with Al's face contorted into sorrow, and helplessness, he had a fairly good idea.

They had helped him up, Ed not really caring whether he stayed on the floor or not, and dragged him along with them to the waiting room. A silent minute passed, and they reached the room that was their destination. Wooden chairs with auburn cushions lined the two opposite sides of the room, exactly seven on either side. Across from where you enter there was a fairly large window, big enough to take up more than half on the wall, and big enough to annoy the living hell out of Ed.

Which brings us back to the present time, Ed peered over to his left, and saw a sleeping Alphonse and May, leaning against each other. May had her tiny head on Al's shoulder, tear stains on her cheeks, and Ed almost felt bad for Al because of how much his head was leaning to the side to rest it on hers. He would definitely have a bad ache in his neck when he woke. And Ed would've found it hilarious, and make sure to tease Al about it when he gained consciousness, if it weren't for that truth of a possibility standing on the edge of a knife.

Four hours had passed, and still there was not a single word heard from the doctor, or anyone for that matter. C-sections were not supposed to take that long. Ed knew that for a fact thanks to all that researching he had done about pregnancy. Hell, he was practically a walking library when it came to pregnancy. Everything there was to know, he knew it. He knew the facts, the possibilities, the endless amount of effort that was needed by both the man and woman, he knew it all, but now when it counts the most, all that knowledge was doing nothing for him. It was all useless, just proving to him once again that he can't solely rely on knowledge. Though he wasn't surprised. Knowledge could only do so much, and when it reached it's point that's when action was needed, but that was just it. There was no action for him to take. No enemy for him to defeat. He was completely useless, and it was driving him to the edge of a cliff.

His eyes wandered the room, to the lamp on the end table, the radio sitting next to it, the rare person that would pass by the window on their way to somewhere, and finally, the door that he was so desperately waiting for someone to come through. But also completely _terrified_ for that someone to come through.

God was he a man full of inner contradictions.

More silent minutes passed, edging him closer and closer to that cliff his mind had conjured up, when his ear twitched at the sound of someone stirring to his left. Al, who had passed out for a solid hour, blinked his mind awake and sat up, making May slide further down his shoulder. As he shifted around, his face flinched and his hand came up to rub his neck.

_Called it._

"Brother?" Al turned his head to Ed, still rubbing his sore neck. "Anything I missed?"

"No," Ed answered almost sourly, "not one damn thing."

A pained look crossed Al's face. He also knew that this procedure wasn't supposed to take this long.

"I won't tell you not to worry, but it does make sense that they would take their time with this. Especially since Winry's sick, and it's still early for the baby. They're most likely trying everything they can to make the two of them comfortable throughout the whole thing." he wanted desperately to comfort his brother, but there was no way Ed would be cheered up now, not unless he saw Winry and his child's smiling faces.

Alphonse reached over and put a hand on Ed's back, giving his shoulder blade three gentle pats. Since oral support wasn't going to work, he may as well try physical. And to his surprise, Ed's expression softened in the slightest bit at the touch, though his eyes still refused to leave the door.

"Brot-"

"Al." Ed stopped him before he could speak.

"Yeah?"

He sighed, and somehow physically shrank into himself, "What do you think? What do you honestly think?" Ed hunched over and put his elbows on his knees, hands coming up just under his bangs, hiding his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Al's confusion shown through his voice.

"I _mean_," Ed sucked in a deep breath, already loathing the words that were about to leave his mouth, "do you honestly believe that the next time I see them they'll both be breathing? And I don't want some pretty speech about how I just have to believe that they'll make it out. The world, as we both know _all_ too clearly, doesn't work that way. Just tell me what you're thinking."

At this sudden question, Al immediately began to turn the wheels of his mind, something he felt like he hadn't been doing before. It was hard, just telling him what he was thinking. Hard because he knew that it could go either way. There was an equal chance of them dying, to them living, but that wasn't something he wanted to say to his brother. He didn't want to repeat what Ed was probably already thinking in his head, it would be a waste of breath, but what else was there to say?

"Brother," he began his words, already feeling the shaky ground he was on, "I have to say that I'm probably thinking the same thing you are. Knowing that there are two possibilities hanging in the air. They might die. They might live." the words left a taste of vinegar as they left his mouth, but he kept going, "Sure we favor the latter, but it's not like that will do us any good. This is something that human being's can't wrap their minds around, much less control."

Al stopped and looked over at his brother, still a shrunken form, "I can't give you comforting words brother. And I can't lie, saying "Everything will be just fine!" when I have no idea if they will be. The sole thing you can do know, is ready yourself for what comes next. Be it buying months worth if diapers, or something else that I won't speak, you'll need to know that you can't run away from it."

"And I know that Edward Elric, former Fullmetal Alchemist won't run away, right brother?"

Ed lifted his head, looked to his little brother, who really acted like his older brother most of the time, and gave thought to what he said. To be honest he wasn't so sure about the running away part. If it came down to that, it just sounded like the better option.

_Shut up Elric!_ The desperate part of him surfaced in his mind again, oh _joy_._ Do you really think you can get away with taking off and forgetting all your problems?! To just throw your life into a spiral of absolutely no meaning?! No! You know you can't! What would that do to Al huh?! His last blood related family skipping off into crazy land? No way in hell! And I don't even want to think about what Winry would do if she saw that! She would probably give you a valid __**reason **__to enter crazy land! Shut that damned weak part of your mind up, and when the time comes, march into that delivery room and look into the open eyes of your wife and child!_

"Brother?" Al waved a hand in front of Ed's face, "Are you still there brother?"

A second passed, and Ed blinked himself back into reality, sighing at the never ending argument going on inside his head, "Oh. Yeah I'm-"

_Click._ The sound of a sound of a door opening quickly shut him up.

"Edward?"

* * *

**A/N:** Well I needed a bit of a filler chapter so sorry for the lack of things happening in this chapter. It was basically a bit of an inside look at how Ed was dealing with the possibility of both Winry and the kid dying...

Anyway, the next chapter will focus on Winry, the baby, and the doctor trying to save their lives. Hope you enjoyed.c:


	16. Chapter 16

If she were to say that her world was completely black, it would've been a lie. A better description would be that it was an assortment of colors. Blue, green, purple, yellow, and red; red being the overbearing one. They would come with all the different pains she was feeling. Blue for a cold pain, green for nausea, purple for god knows what, yellow for the harsh light that hit her all too sensitive eyes, and red was for the excruciating pain she felt radiating from her abdomen.

And to make it all worse, she was surprisingly aware of everything that was happening to her. It was almost like she was trapped under a thin veil, her consciousness threatening to break through at any moment. She knew that there were doctors operating above her, she knew that she had gone into a frighteningly early labor, and she knew that Ed wasn't there. From what she had heard while being wheeled into an operating room, Ed had been told to stay behind.

She was infuriatingly frustrated herself. How could she have let this happen? And why did it have to happen so suddenly? Everything had been completely fine a few days ago. There were no signs of her being sick at all. Though that cold night she spent by herself probably didn't help her immune system too much, it was still ridiculous for her to have contracted something so quickly.

And now here she was on what could possibly be her death bed.

Winry wasn't stupid. She knew what could happen to her. A woman who was sick with something bad as the flu while giving birth to a frighteningly premature baby _wasn't_ a good combination. Anything could happen during a normal labor, but hers was _not _happening under normal circumstances, and there was a very good chance that she could die.

And yeah, that thought did scare her a bit, with what her new found fear of her own mortality, but the fact that her baby could be a still-born scared her even more. If his/her lungs weren't properly formed, and if the heart wasn't beating well enough on its own, then they'd have zero percent chance of living. Sure there were way to make the heart beat, and ways to get air to the lungs, but even those had their limitations.

So in turn, she'd focus all the energy she had in her body not towards making sure she was okay but making sure of the baby's safety. It was all she could do at this point. There was no possibility of her postponing this to make sure the baby formed a bit more, it was happening in the here and now. Even if it was just wishing with all she had left that they would be okay she'd do it. Because she'd be damned she didn't leave anything for Ed to hold onto.

And another dull, scorching pain came from her abdomen. _A C-section huh?_ She gathered from the feeling of a large C being made on her stomach. _Figures_.

She could almost feel the gap that was now a part of her. It was a ghost of a feeling thanks to the morphine they shot into her back, so she was thankful that she didn't feel them tearing at her skin. Having been a sort of doctor herself, she knew how important it was to medicate the patient before any type of surgery, but now that she was on the other side of it, she was going to have to rethink the doses.

* * *

Ten minutes passed, and she knew that the baby was out of her. If you asked her how, she wouldn't know how to respond. It was just a feeling of emptiness, not necessarily bad, but empty. A weight she had been carrying for only six months was suddenly gone. How was one supposed to react? She couldn't even open her eyes to see if he or she was alright. It was pathetic.

So instead, she focused on listening, but much to her dismay, there was nothing to listen to. Not the one thing she wanted to hear anyway. All that could be heard in the room was the doctors calling out orders, and surgeons trying to close her back up, not the beautiful cry of a healthy baby.

She picked up from someone who had been beside her that her heart rate was dangerously low and she had lost a fair amount of blood, which was odd because she couldn't even register a thumping in her ears or the feeling of blood running in her veins. Her body just felt _still_. Though she could feel her grip loosening, she used whatever strength she had left to listen.

* * *

The doctor worked over Winry's still body with determination. The tools in her hand felt heavier than usual, most likely because this wasn't a procedure on some random person. She knew the story of the body she was working on, she knew that the girl had gone and married a boy who had already lost everything and couldn't bear to lose her. She knew how important the baby she could now see the head of was to the both of them, and no, it wasn't a normal procedure.

It felt _personal_.

Though the odds of this going well weren't good. That much she knew for sure. The girl had already lost too much blood in just the few minutes she had cut her open, it was practically spilling out of the poor girl. The cause of this was most likely because the flu she had contracted. The blood wants all too eagerly to get the virus out of its system, so what was occurring now was the result.

"Damn it!" the doctor voiced her frustration and earned concerned looks from the others in the room.

"We need to work faster!"

She spoke as they had finally reached a point where they could pull the baby out, and in one swift movement, feeling around and grabbing the child by the torso; she lifted the baby out of the girl below her, checking the gender as she did.

"A boy." She called out to let her colleagues know.

Covered in a white substance and,of course, blood, the boy was condemningly small. Just a bit bigger than the size of her hand, which was fairly large for a woman, but still, she could already tell this wasn't going to be an easy fight.

Without hesitation, she quickly walked over to another bed they had prepared, grabbed a towel, and began drying the baby, wrapping the boy in a dry one when she was done. Next was to suck all the amniotic fluid from the airways, meaning she needed to suck the fluid out of the nostrils and the lungs.

She was hoping that since the baby hadn't been crying yet he would after she finished clearing his airways, but it wasn't happening. The baby lay still on the bed.

Frantic, the doctor pressed two fingers against the side of the baby's throat and check for a heartbeat, and instantly her blood warmed. From that tiny little neck the boy had, was a faint beating, signaling that he had just as much fight as his parents did.

"How's it going over there?" she inquired with a new found reassurance.

"Not good." Susan, her friend of many years, replied from across the room, "The amount of blood she's lost, combined with how weak her body already was…" she couldn't finish her sentence as the body below her demanded her attention.

"Alright." The doctor gulped down her fear, and turned back to the baby in front of her, "Just focus on closing her up right now. Once that's done we'll go from there."

She didn't need to turn around to see the nod from Susan.

* * *

Another thirty minutes of strained necks and sweaty brows passed, and everyone in the operating room was still. Winry had been closed up, the boy had been placed in NICU, and was holding strong, but the same couldn't be said for his mother.

The girl lay still on her bed, which wasn't all that concerning considering how much morphine that had given her, but the rise and fall of her chest was few and far between. They had given her a few blood transfusions, but the body could only be filled so much with foreign blood when you had lost most of your own.

The most frightening thing was her heart rate. It was sporadic to say the least. In most of the time they had been observing her, it had been faint, but there were times where it would spike back to normalcy and then fade yet again.

Biting her nail, the doctor stood beside the unconscious Winry, frustrated that there was literally nothing else she could do. No more blood could be given, and it wasn't like she could reach into the girl and make her heart beat normally. No. It was her fight now. Whether the illness, the pain, and the blood loss would win was now out of the surgeons and doctors control.

Still chewing on the white ends of her nails, the doctor turned on her heels and made her way for the door. There was still one last thing she needed to do.

"I'll be back." She called to the other people who were still cleaning the room up with worried faces.

The door clicked open, then shut, and she was now by herself in the hallway. Her chest heaved with a sigh, and she began walking, her footsteps echoing off of the off-white walls.

All that was left was to inform the girl's husband.

* * *

**A/N: **A baby boy! Sorry if you wanted it to be a girl, but sticking to the canon material here.c:

Anyway, I didn't leave it off on _much_ of a cliffhanger this time so be happy and rest easy! Thank to all who reviewed, it's very much appreciated and I'm glad you're all enjoying it.

I'll update soon!c:


	17. Chapter 17

The door opened with a faint clicking noise, and a voice sounded inside the waiting room, "Edward?" The doctor asked, searching the small waiting area until she met with the distraught eyes she was looking for.

"Ah, there you all are…" she rubbed her hands together and stepped inside, shutting the door quietly behind her.

Ed straightened in his seat, and Alphonse mirrored him, giving his brother one last concerning glance before he turned to the doctor.

"How are they?" his strained voice was like a knife in her throat. Honestly, she still had no idea what to say, or rather she _knew_ what to say but just didn't know _how_ to say it. Despite the long walk she had traveled to get to the room, her mind had come up with nothing. Only worry was present.

She sighed and rubbed her forehead, deciding to act like an adult and tell it to him straight, "I honestly can't say that I know. Winry is in critical condition, and the baby is being taken care of in the NICU." She paused and took in a breath, not daring to look him in the eyes, "Winry lost a dangerous amount of blood during the operation and that combined with her sickness doesn't make for a fast recovery rate. The baby is alive and breathing, his heart rate is low, but that's to be expected since he was born so early on in the pregna-"

"He…?"

The doctor's head snapped up at the realization that she had revealed the baby's gender, and was met with gold, tear stricken eyes.

She swallowed back the lump in her throat and tried to give a small smile, "Yes. You both have a little boy on your hands now."

"_haa_…" Ed let out a breathy sigh and brought his hands up to his forehead, taking this information in. A son. He had a son. _They _had a son.

Alphonse set a hand on his brothers back, tears also threatening to overflow in his eyes. He'd had a hunch that the baby was going to be a boy.

Their wait was finally over, though it had only begun hours ago. The mind numbing, nail chewing, foot tapping silence had died down for now. He had his answers, but more questions had come out of them, starting yet another waiting period.

"What do we do now?" Ed voiced his question to the doctor, and she looked up at him with a guilty expression on her features.

"I truly am sorry, but you'll have to wait this out again." She answered in a sorrowful tone.

"We can do that." Alphonse spoke this time; arousing glances form both his brother and the doctor. "Winry will be fine." He stopped and turned to Ed, "Like I was telling you before brother, Winry's strong. She can pull through. And if you're son is anything like you two," he paused and smiled, his brother's perseverance through the years running through his head, "he's going to be just as tough."

The doctor took a step back, and observed the pair, not quite knowing how to react to their optimism. It was almost as if there was an unspoken conversation happening behind the words that were actually spoken. Years of history, trauma, and experience were being exchanged with a single look, she could tell, and the scene in front of her brought back a wave of memories from when they had returned.

The news of what the brothers had done over in Central had spread throughout the country like wildfire, Resembool of course being one of the first places to hear anything thanks to Pinako Rockbell. The whole town was soon in an uproar over the turn of events. They were ecstatic that the children they had labeled as _"unfortunate"_ and _"broken"_ in the past had saved each and every one of their lives. They had made a name for themselves, intentional or not, and climbed out of the worst of situations.

The town was proud, and welcomed them back home with open arms instead of side-glances full of sympathy. They weren't the _"poor boys who had lost their mother"_ or _"the children whose father abandoned them"_ or _"the foolish children who had committed a taboo" _anymore. In their eyes, they had become hero's of sorts.

Of course, given their personalities, Edward had refused to be called a hero and found the attention annoying, while Alphonse had grinned a sheepish smile and voiced a heart filled thanks to everyone that praised him.

The doctor looked at them now, and decided they were the strongest people she ever had the privilege of knowing. Here they sat, faced with yet another terrible affair and they were smiling encouraging smiles, and had eyes lit up by hope. Despite they're show of optimism, being who she was, what she's seen, and knowing how most of these cases turn out, she couldn't bring herself to hope as strongly as they were.

_Oh, they're strong alright._

She heaved a long sigh, collected her thoughts, and cleared her throat to gain their attention, "I'm fairly sure that your boy will be alright. His heartbeat was faint, but steady and that's a really good sign. All he needs is to be kept in the NICU, watched over, a few more weeks to develop properly and he should be good to go."

"Can we see them?"

"Yes actually. You'll have to wait for us to move your wife to a different room, but your son has already been placed in his own bed so you can see him now if you'd like." She paused, and looked over to Mei who was still sleeping awkwardly on the seats, "Um, is that girl alright? She's hasn't moved at all since we've been talking."

"Oh!" Alphonse snapped out of his focused state and turned back to a drooling May who had slumped over while he had been talking to Ed. "Yeah she's fine! Just tired." He assured the doctor.

She gave a concerned glance, but brushed it off. There were more urgent matters she needed to attend to, "I'll give you a moment to collect your things. I'll be waiting outside to take you to your sons room."

Both Ed and Al nodded to her as she stepped out.

"May?" Alphonse placed a hand on May's forearm and gave it a light shake, Xiao-Mei giving him a helping hand. "Oh man. Her necks going to be killing her when she gets up…"

"Way to go Alphonse. You should be more considerate of your girlfriend."

"Yeah I know…"

It took a second before Al froze. Confusion. A glance back at his brother. Then realization.

"Wha- how- wai- huh?!" Al voiced his obvious embarrassment at his brother while his face began going red, "When did I…?! How did you…?"

Ed only chuckled at his brother's reaction, wondering if he had looked the same all those years ago, "I'm not stupid Al." He reached over and ruffled his brothers hair, "Anyone would see it with the way you two act around each other, especially me. Wait scratch that. Winry noticed it first, and then when _I_ had realized and asked her about, she gushed about how perfect you two seemed together."

Alphonse looked down, his blush still holding strong, "…It was that obvious?"

Ed reached over and grasped his brother on the shoulder, "Good for you Al. _Really_."

Alphonse looked back up, forgetting his embarrassment for the moment. Ed's face held a sincerity that he'd only seen a handful of times, but the sadness and worry from his current predicament still lingered on his features, particularly on his eyebrows.

And a weight lifted off of Al's shoulder's. He'd been meaning to tell his brother and Winry about this, but his embarrassment kept getting the better of him, though it's not like he knew how to bring it up in the first place.

Seeing his brother and Winry get married was when he had really begun to think about the "love" thing. They had both look so..so _happy_, that it made him think about what it would be like if he were to get married sometime in the future. And yes, he had spent more time thinking about it than realizing what was right in front of him. Once he did though, he reprimanded himself for saying that his brother was the most oblivious to his own feelings, which he had been, but it felt wrong to have called him that when he had been equally oblivious.

"Thanks brother…"

Ed was about to reply, but just as he was about to speak May began stirring awake.

"mmmm…." She groaned as she began to feel the pain in her neck.

"Oh, you're awake now?" Al turned his attention back to her as he she began waking up.

"Hmm, yeah." She sat up, and blinked twice before she remembered where she was.

"Oh! Was there any news?! What happened?!" she began groggily asking the two men in front of her, confused by the expressions they were sporting.

"Yes, there actually _was _some news. You just missed the doctor." Al replied.

"_Well_, what happened?" she straightened herself out a bit more, and brought a hand up to the side of her neck as Xiao-Mei hopped onto her shoulder.

"I'll explain on the way there. We're going to see the baby now."

The pair of brothers got up from their seats, along with May and her companion, grabbed their belongings and began to make their way out of the room. As promised, the doctor was silently waiting outside of the door, a solemn look on her face.

"Are we ready now?" she asked as she pushed herself off the wall she was leaning against and addressed the trio, or quartet if you include the little one on the girls shoulder.

Ed only nodded, words not wanting to come out of his mouth. He couldn't even really say that he was ready anyway, at least not whole-heartedly.

The doctor nodded back to him in response, and began leading the group towards their destination.

He sucked in a breath, and let it out silently. His son and wife were waiting on the other side of the hospital, and that was all the cause he needed to throw away his fear and continue on down the old halls of the hospital.

_A son… huh?_

* * *

**A/N:**Well, I hope you enjoyed! I'm trying to make the chapters a bit longer, but that's proving to be a bit difficult with the spare time I have, which I used to have a lot of but that's beside the point.

Next chapter Ed'll meet his son, and get a surprise visit from a good(?) friend. Thanks for reading.c:


	18. Chapter 18

Ed moved with the group silently, his face formed into a somber expression. Despite his earlier joking around with Alphonse and show of will to the doctor he was now following, he was nervous as hell. Why? Well because he was about to meet his son for the first time.

His _son_.

Somewhere in the hospital, Winry had fought her way through her pain to give the both of them a son. Sure, meeting him without her was disheartening, but he wasn't about to let this opportunity slip away from him. For a reason that he was aware of, but not completely _accepting _of, he felt like the baby was going to disappear, that he would just be _gone _if he waited to see him, if he hesitated. So, he kept his eyes forward and his feet moving. Winry was in the hands of the doctors, and he would see her soon enough. Hell, she'd probably immediately wake up and beat the shit out of him of he didn't go see their son first.

"It's right through here." The doctor spoke and motioned with her hand for Ed to walk into the room, pulling him out of his thoughts. He stepped inside, followed by Al and May and heard the doctor speak again, "I'll come and get you when your wife's room has been prepared for her. Take your time."

And the door clicked shut.

The room consisted of a counter with cabinets above it, five chairs lined up against the right wall, and in the left corner of the room was the baby bed, coming up to about Ed's waist line in height.

In truth, he wanted to dash for the bed and hold onto the baby in his arms as tight as he could, but of course he wouldn't. He didn't want to start off fatherhood with making the poor kid cry, right? So, he just walked towards the bed taking it one step at a time until the child was finally filling his sights.

Edward Elric fell in love instantly.

He was small, frighteningly small, but his chest was rising and falling with every short breath the machine he was hooked up to would allow. Ed slowly reached down into the bed, and carefully took his child's hand into his own.

"Haaa…" Ed choked out; his chest was swelling almost to the point where he was having difficulty breathing.

Trying to take in the boy's appearance through the tears that were freely falling from his eyes, he saw his hair was the same color as Winry's, a light yellow scarcely spreading over his scalp. And as he blinked at the new person looking at him, Ed saw that his eyes were the same as his own, gold like the people of Xerses. He had actually hoped for this outcome. In his mind, it was a sort of homage to keep one of their traits going after all this time. It would've been a shame for everything of theirs to die out.

And through the boys struggle to keep his eyes open, he smiled.

"Al!" Ed called for his brother who had stayed by the door with May to give him some space, "Al! He smiled at me Al!"

Alphonse could hear the smile in his brother's voice, and couldn't stay by the door any longer. The want to see his nephew had grown lager at Ed's words. He rushed over to the bed and took in the baby with his own eyes.

"Oh! You're right!" he reached his brother to find his son smiling with the softest of grins on his tiny face. A mixture of both Ed's and Winry's from what he could tell. And before he knew it tears were streaming down his face as well.

"Awee.." May cooed along with Xiao Mei, "he's so adorable!"

"Yeah." Alphonse agreed with the woman, a smile of his own spreading on his face.

Ed could only stare in wonder at the baby now. Words couldn't describe his feelings, and God knew he was one for words. It was just…_mesmerizing_. That was the only word he could come up with at the moment. He had learned a hell of a lot about life during his journey with his brother all those years ago, but to see it now, happening for him, well... what else could he do but be in awe? He was here, staring at him with a grin on his face, completely trusting and especially vulnerable. The innocence of it all was almost unbearable.

A certain feeling began to embed itself in his chest. Loving, and warm, but ruthless and protective, it rooted into his being, and he knew that he wouldn't let _anything _happen to the kid staring at him from below. He would raise him, and he would be there for him. No exceptions.

"Brother." Al smiled and spoke, interrupting his loss of reality, "Why don't you pick him up?"

Ed shot a panicked look at his brother, "Is it okay for me to do that?!"

"Of course it's okay. He is _your _son after all, right?"

"But," he looked back down, a truly worried expression forming on his face, "I feel like I'll break him…"

"Edward," Al reprimanded his brother in his "older brother" voice, "You are _not _going to break him. It'll be fine."

He looked back to his brother who had crossed his arms in wait, with May copying the actions, and sighed, "Alright. It's now or never."

"Brother, there will never be a "never"." Al corrected, "You're going to hold him sooner or later."

"Right…"

_Okay, I can do this…_

Slowly, he reached his other hand down and place it under the baby's back, the other behind his head, careful to make sure the cords he was connected to would extend when he picked him up, and gently lifted the child into his arms. Granted the cradle he had formed was a bit awkward, the baby fit somewhat nonetheless.

Ed laughed at the new sight.

The kid's eyes were now closed, and he could've sworn he had one of the most content smiles he had ever seen on his tiny little face. It looked as if he was in pure heaven in the awkward crook of his father's arms.

Al had taken May under his _own _arm at the sight, and reveled in how happy his brother looked. It was nice to see him smile after all they'd gone through. Of course he had smiled during it all, and he had had his fair share of smiles since the ordeal, but every one of them was just as nice to see as the last.

Edward, still taking in his child's features, spoke the only words that would vocalize, "I can't wait for Winry to see him."

* * *

Five days passed and Winry still hadn't woken up. It was a fever induced coma form what the doctor had told him. Her flu had gotten so bad in the little time she had caught it to now, and of course going into labor had only made it all the worse, so in turn her body had shut down. It needed to rest itself in turn for all the stress that had been put on it.

Worrying was a given, but Ed still had other things to be responsible for, or at least one **big **thing. The baby.

All was well with him at least. The doctor had said he was progressing smoothly in the time they had been monitoring him, so that was a load off his shoulders, but actually taking care of him was a completely different matter.

The first time he had cried, which was on the second day, he had been in Ed's arms and he hadn't known what to do in the _least_. If Winry had been there he would've immediately given him over to her, because he knew that mothers were automatically better at this in the beginning, but to his dismay he had remembered that she was still sleeping.

Al and May left early on the third day, having to get back to Central for work. The Fuhrer bastard was giving all the state alchemists a course on Alkahestry, thinking the healing aspects of it would be useful, and that was being provided by May of course. Alphonse was there to supervise, and get his own dose of the course as well, despite having learned everything there was to know about it in his time in Xing.

But it wasn't like Ed was alone though. Granny had come in and out through the days. She had automail orders to fill, Winry's as well, so she couldn't be there all day and night like he was doing. Her reaction to the baby was similar to his. She'd only spoken a few words of congratulations before the waterworks came, the only thing she could do was affectionately hold the baby and smile.

Ed sighed and shifted his position on the chair he was resting on. He'd made himself at home in the room Winry had been put in, who was now joined by the baby in a bed next to hers. He had books, clothes, food scattered on a table next to him, and a blanket lying on his lap, all of which Granny had been nice enough to go home and get for him.

He tapped his fingers against the arm rest, and exhaled in frustration. He hadn't the slightest idea what to do with himself! The baby had just gone back to sleep, so obviously he couldn't wake him up and talk to him like he had already become adjusted to doing in a ridiculously high and weird voice. Though he didn't mind it since it made the baby smile, but back to the point, he was going to go mad. Not being able to talk to Winry was getting to him.

He reached forward and brushed her bangs out of her face, grimacing slightly at the obvious lack in color on her face. The skin on her body had been so pale when he first saw her that his heart had actually stopped beating for a moment there. She had literally looked like a corpse. But his heart had started once again when he saw the barely visible rise and fall of her chest. It was faint, but any sign that she was still there was a Godsend.

"Winry…" he tried talking to her again, "we're both waiting for you here…"

Nothing. Not even a twitch of her hand.

He leaned back into his chair and ran a hand down his face, deciding to get a bit of shut eye before the sun came up again.

* * *

"Mmm! Oh this is delicious!" Ed heard a voice sounding in the room, but couldn't quite process it yet, "I'd almost forgotten how delicious Amestrian food was!"

"Yes my Lord," a different voice this time, assumingly female, "but don't you think you should be a bit quieter due to the circumstances?"

"Ah, it's fine, it's fine! The dudes so thick I doubt he'd wake up from our voices." a familiar annoying laughter ensued after the sentence.

_Wait…_ Ed thought, finally coming back into consciousness… _I know that laugh…_

And instantly he shot up out of his chair, swiveling his head in all directions until he found the source of the voices he had heard. What came into his sights was pleasant, but still annoying as hell.

"Ling?!" Ed shouted, and immediately covered his mouth, scared his voice might've scared the baby. He ran to the bed to make sure, and sighed in relief when he only stirred in his sleep.

"Yo Ed! Long time no see!" Ling greeted Ed with a mouthful of food upon him walking back towards his chair.

"What the hell are you doing here?! Don't you have, oh I don't know, a _country _to run?!" Ed spat in annoyance. In truth he was kind of glad to see the guy, but the way he would always randomly appear in places got under his skin.

"Hey now!" he grinned with closed eyes as usual, "Is that any way to greet an old friend?"

"One of my friends is here?" he pretended to look around the room, "Where?"

"Are you insulting my Lord?" Lan Fan suddenly appeared by Ed, and held a straightened hand next to his neck, ready to strike as usual.

"No way! _Me_?" being sarcastic was proving to be fun for Ed at the moment.

"It's alright Lan Fan." Ling laughed at the annoyance in Ed's voice, "He's just cranky."

"Cranky?!" Ed questioned and turned his head toward the Emperor who was sitting gracefully on the open window, "You do see my wife lying here unconscious don't you?!" he gestured toward Winry who was still in the same position as when he last saw her, "I think what I'm feeling qualifies as more than just mere "crankiness"!" he made a face at the end of his sentence.

"Yes, and I'd love for you to tell me all about your feelings, but she's green so it'll be fine." He hopped off the window sill, and strode towards the table with all of Ed's belongings, "Oooh, what are these?" he picked up a bag of apple crisps Granny had made and brought for Ed on her last visit, and proceeded to stuff them into his mouth, "OH! Delicious!"

"Indeed." Lan Fan agreed when Ling had offered her one.

And Ed, confused by his "green" comment spoke up, "Wait wait… what the hell do you mean by green?"

Ling looked up from the bag that was already half empty, "Oh that? Well, green as in she's getting better."

Ed, even more confused than before replied, "Ok… and how the hell do you know that?! What's "green"?!"

The Xingese man sighed like he was talking to a five year old, "Geez Ed, I thought you'd at least know the basics of Alkahestry, with what your brother having mastered it and all."

"Says the man who didn't know shit about anything alchemy a few years ago." He snapped back.

"Yeah, well, for your information, I had the little princess teach me some!" Ling shot back at the insult of his intelligence.

"Well good for you! But that still doesn't explain what being "green" means!"

"Oh, that's right." He set down the empty bag of crisps and moved to one of the other chairs in the room, sitting on it cross legged, "Well as the princess described it, when a person "feels green" it means their health is returning. That they're getting better." He paused to laugh at the sheer confusion spread on Ed's face, "Believe me, I didn't understand _any _of it when she explained it to me. But when I actually started practicing I saw what she meant by "feeling green". It's hard to explain, but just trust me when I say that she's green." He gestured toward Winry, "Once you start the healing process through Alkahestry, if the person feels green then that means the healing is working. Now if you apply it to a person healing themselves on their own, it's basically the same thing."

"Very good." Lan Fan nodded in approval, having gone through the training with him. Ling nodded with an overly pleased expression at her approval.

Ed on the other hand just wanted to melt into a puddle of relief on the floor if he could. It was the best news he'd had in these long five days, and right about now he was feeling extremely guilty for finding Ling annoying in anyway at all.

"Thank you…" he spoke as his eyes began to tear up, not caring if the man saw him cry or not.

"Woah there. You see this Lan Fan?" Ling back up in his seat, "This is out of character. He'd better not be falling in love with me."

And amazingly, the guilt was gone in an instant, "I'm _not _falling in love with you jackass!" he shot up out of his chair with a murderous glint in his eye, "I'm married with a son! Are you blind?! Oh wait," he smirked, "I forgot that you hardly ever open your damn eyes."

Then suddenly from the entrance of the room, the door clicked and opened to reveal a tired looking Alphonse and May.

"Oh great!" Ed smiled and strode towards them, "_Alphonse_! Finally some with whom I can hold an intelligent conversation with!"

"Huh?" Alphonse groaned and closed his eyes as he took a seat in one of the other empty chairs along with May, "What are you on about now brother? And hi Ling, Lan Fan." He spoke to Ed and then greeted the pair that stood out like a sore thumb in the room.

"What's up Alphonse?" Ling grinned and ignored Ed's insult, "How are things with the little princess?"

"W-what?!" The pair spoke in an embarrassed unison, the tiredness they were feeling only moments ago completely forgotten.

"You heard me." He spoke again in a completely serious tone, "Have you two hooked up ye-"

"Don't harass my brother!" Ed intervened at the sight of Alphonse reddening and the tiny Xingese woman next to him shrinking into herself.

"Waaah!" a sudden high pitched cry sounded inside the room and Ed stopped in his tracks.

_Shit! We woke him up!_

Immediately, he walked over to the baby's bed and picked him up, much more used to it now than he was when he had first done it. He then began to softly rub the boy's back, going in small circular motions, though that didn't really do much since his hand was basically the size of his back, but it set Ed's nerve at ease as well.

"Shh. You're okay, its fine." He shushed the tiny baby in his arms and was relieved at how quickly he had stopped crying. In only four days he already felt like an expert in how to handle fussy babies, despite the first incident.

The room had gone quiet at the scene. If they were to describe it, it was almost as if a switch had automatically been turned on inside the new father's head. Alphonse was smiling along with May and Xiao-Mei, Ling was smirking with a happy expression and even Lan Fan, who didn't really show much emotion had a soft look in her eyes.

Noticing how quiet the room had gotten, Ed looked up from his son and saw all the mushy expressions his company was wearing, "The hell are you all looking at?"

Ling scoffed and replied before anyone else could, "Oh nothing. We were just observing how sappy you've gotten."

"Oh shut up you squinty eyed bastard." Ed replied with an insult that hardly had any bite in it. How could he be unnecessarily angry when his son was in his arms?

The other's in the room only laughed and smiled through their playful banter.

Ed looked back at their baby, and then to Winry who he could've sworn had a small smile on her face. Despite the events of the past few days, things were finally starting to brighten up.

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry I haven't been updating as often as I said I would. My grandpa wound up in the hospital these past few days, so I've hardly had time to do anything. I decided to give some time to myself for a while, and figured I should update this while I can. And with this chapter, you've completely caught up! I'm trying to type up the next one now, but it'll be a while before I can actually get it on here. So in advance I'll thank you for your patience. He's still in the hospital, so this fic isn't exactly on my priority list right now. Sorry about that.

But anyway, I hope you enjoyed. I'll really do my best to update this when I have time. It will be completed, so no worries there! Thanks again.c:


	19. Chapter 19

Roy yawned and leaned back into his chair, raising his arms over his head as he attempted to work out the soreness that had formed in his back. He'd been stuck in his office all day with nothing paperwork and dull walls to keep him company, which wasn't such a bad thing considering that affairs had been pretty peaceful both inside and outside Central's walls, but in his personal tastes, things were maybe a little _too_ peaceful.

In all honesty, he missed having to deal with the antics of his old team all the time. Sharing an office with them had been a pain in the ass back then, but now having this great big room with just him in it seemed _off_ to him. In no way was he complaining, this had been his goal after all, but it didn't hurt to reminisce once in a while right? Of course he still saw them all the time, during duty hours, and after though he was basically on duty all day every day, but that was beside the point. Sometimes they would all meet up for drinks and whatnot so he wasn't completely isolated. It was just the moments when he would set his pen down and notice that no one else was in the room that bothered him.

He sighed and turned around to look out of the window behind him. The sun was already beginning to set and the sight caused him to stifle yet another yawn threatening to come out of his mouth.

"Damn I could go for some coffee." He mumbled to himself and ran a hand down his face when he suddenly heard the clicking of his door opening.

"Sir, I'm here for the batch of paper work I left for you yesterday." Riza let herself into the room and saluted, always the professional she was, and gave Roy an expecting look as she walked over to his desk.

"Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes." He began with his usual banter, and picked up the stack of paper she'd been referring to. It was true though, his words. She definitely _was_ a sight to be seen. Looking back up at her while handing her what she was waiting for, he took her appearance in.

Her hair could be seen down more often, the locks of blond resting at about her shoulders where they met the blue of her uniform's jacket. Her cheeks were colored a light pink, whether it was makeup or just her natural skin color he had no idea, and honestly didn't care because it looked good on her either way. Her eyes, brown. The same brown they'd been when he first met her, but with an intensity that could burn a hole in his mind.

And finally his eyes came to rest on the diamond ring he'd placed on her hand a month ago when she'd agreed to marry him. It'd been a hell of a night, filled with overreacting nerves and sweaty palms but he'd finally managed to get it out. And though he'd hate to admit it, it was thanks to Fullmetal that he even thought about saying it in the first place. That day the shrimp had swung his office doors open with an ear to ear grin, boasting about how he was going to be a father was the day he'd actually asked Riza to dinner. And _damn_ was he grateful.

Riza took the papers from the man, and gave a slight nod, "How is all the other work coming along?"

"It's going." Roy came back from his thoughts and brought his intertwined hands to rest under his chin, "Slow and tedious, but going."

She shook her head and walked over to the small side table against the wall, "You'd do your best not to complain." She spoke and began preparing coffee for the man at the desk with dark bags under his eyes. "You'd _also_ do your best to get more sleep. Running on fumes isn't any benefit to anyone."

"Yeah, yeah." Spoke with an intended exasperated tone, but not even that was worth the effort at the moment. All he had wanted to do was shut his eyes, but now that he'd gotten to thinking about Fullmetal his mind couldn't help but wonder if they were doing alright.

"Hey," he raised head and looked over at Riza, "has there been any word from Alphonse or Edward?"

Around six days ago he'd gotten a call from a worried Alphonse explaining why he hadn't been on the train to Central like they had agreed on. The man explained that Winry had gone into an early labor and that he was going to stay with his brother for the time being. Roy of course understood and didn't question Alphonse once, until he and May had shown up in his office a day and a half later.

More news was shared then, granted it wasn't good news, but anything was better than being in the dark about it. They'd been told Winry still hadn't woken up, that she was still in a comatose state brought on by the combination of her sickness and the stress the early labor put her under, and that the baby was fine but needed to be kept under watch for a while.

Roy was going to ask about how Ed had been, out of manner's sake, but honestly didn't even need to. The way Ed had come bursting into his office all those months ago while spewing countless boasts about his oncoming fatherhood told him all there was to know.

"No," Riza looked down a frown settling upon her features, "there hasn't." She walked over to his desk and set the mug down, moving away some papers strewn about on its surface as she did.

Roy's eyebrows furrowed, and his hands, entwined with each other, came to rest just before his mouth. Riza, seeing this and knowing exactly what it meant, sighed and began taking up all paperwork from his desk, compiling it into three different stacks and placing them neatly into two of the drawers in his desk.

"Come on." She simply stated as she went to grab his coat from the opposite side of the room.

"The hell are you doing?" Roy voiced his confusion blankly.

"You're doing it again." She stopped by the side of his chair and held his coat out for him, "I know you want to go see them, so come on. I'd be more than happy to go with or without you. Anyway, you can take a day or two off. I'll get next in command to hold down the fort for the time being."

He quickly got up, due to the fact Riza had hooked her hand under his arm, and placed his coat around his shoulder as per his usual style, "Heh." He smirked with a teasing air about him but he was actually pretty grateful for her observation skills, "This coming from the woman who wouldn't stop nagging me about taking to many breaks."

"Just come on." She donned her own smile and began to exit the room with him following behind, "If we catch the next train we should be there by morning and hopefully you'll get some proper rest."

"Yeah, yeah."

* * *

"Achoo!" May sneezed aloud as she and Alphonse were walking down the chilled hall of the hospital. It was already getting late so they'd decided to head to the cafeteria to get food for themselves and the others, temporarily leaving Ed alone with Ling and Lan Fan; the former of the two more than happy to keep his friend company. Which obviously meant annoying the hell out of him, but it was a thoughtful gesture nonetheless.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Al asked idly as he walked beside the shorty next to him. He'd noticed she'd been sneezing an awful lot these past few days but every time he asked her she would brush it off.

"Yeah," she replied rubbing her nose, and earning a worried look from Xiao-Mei, "it's most likely just a head cold. I'm not that used to this kind of climate, so that's probably the reason for it." She crossed her arms under her chest and gave into a small pout, "It's even throwing off my sense of Chi."

That was the thing she was most frustrated with. Her sense of Chi, and everything to do with Alkahestry was way off with this new found illness residing in her. When the Emperor had found that Winry was "green" she was just as surprised by it by everyone else. And for that she was rewarded by teasing from the greedy man.

"Well, if you're right about that I can ask granny to make her special stew she would feed me and Ed whenever we were sick." He smiled down at her as they reached the door to Winry and the baby's room, "It would have us feeling better in no time!"

May only giggled as she nodded in appreciation and stepped through the now open door, giving way to a rather colorful conversation happening within it.

"I told you to shut the hell up you damn glutton!"

"Hey I'm just telling you the truth! I heard the first baby normally gets their looks from the mom and I just want you to be grateful for that!"

"You bastard! "

"Wow that's all you've got in reply? I gotta say, I'm honestly kind of disappointed."

"Well sorry to burst your bubble but it's probably your being here that's making me ill."

"Oho! Good one!"

"Agh just shut the hell up and go back already!"

"Sure sure, your house is more than accommodating. Just to let you know."

"Wha- MY HOUSE?! YOU'RE STAYING AT MY HOUSE?! HOW THE HELL DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHERE IT IS?!"

"Your trusty little brother let us know." Ling pointed towards Al who was now standing by the back wall with a sheepish smile on his face.

"What the hell Al?" Ed turned and questioned his brother who only responded with, "I brought your food brother!"

The new father only sighed and plopped himself down in his chair next to Winry's bed after grabbing his food from Al, "Forget it. Stay wherever you like I don't care."

He promptly went to eating his sandwich when he stopped to turn and glare at Ling, "But don't you dare trash my house and ravage my fridge. _GOT IT_?"

Ling put on his best soldier face and brought a straightened hand to his forehead, "Yes sir!" And with that they pair promptly exited the building through the window.

"Sheesh. Can't they leave like normal people for once?" Ed scolded them and went back to stuffing his face.

Al laughed along with May, who still sounded stuffy but happy nonetheless, and grabbed his coat from a chair nearby, "We're going to head out too brother. I hadn't realized it'd gotten this late. You okay by yourself?"

"Pft! Of course I am!" Ed laughed his brother's question off, "You two kids head on home and try not to get into too much trouble alright?" he teased lightheartedly to convince his brother of what he'd just said and from the slight blush on their faces he guessed it worked.

"Alright brother, see you tomorrow." Al walked over to pat his brother on the back and left with May who gave a short "see ya" before they went.

As the pair began walking down the cold hallway once more May looked up at Al and questioned, "Do you really think he's alright?"

He only shook his head, frowned and replied, "Not really, no. But at this point there's nothing we can do but let him work it out for himself."

They sighed, practically in unison and made their way back to Ed and Winry's house to make sure Lan Fan had stopped Ling from doing anything unnecessary.

Back in the hospital room, Ed scarfed down the last of his food, took a swig of the tea Al had gotten him and brought out his cot the hospital supplied him with the first night he stayed over. Consciousness wasn't too great for him at the moment, so getting to sleep didn't seem like a bad idea. Once he put the cot next to the baby's bed and everything was all set for him to lie down, he gave Winry and the kid a quick kiss on the forehead before turning the lights out.

And now came the agonizing part.

Here he was again, by practically by himself with nothing but his thoughts, which weren't so chipper, to keep him company. Sure he knew Winry was on the verge of getting better, according to Ling, and the baby seemed to be doing fine, even though the poor kid didn't even have a name yet, but this was the present and it sucked.

Winry was still unconscious, granted her normal skin color was coming back and she even moved a bit the other day, but not being able to hear her voice was _still_ bothering him. Hell he couldn't even remember the last real thing she said to him. All he _did_ remember was her screaming and it's not like he wanted to keep recalling _that_, so he kept those thoughts tucked away in the corner of his head all day every day. Unfortunately, that only worked until he ended up alone and they came creeping back to the forefront of his mind without any distraction to stop it.

And because he honestly did give a shit for the moment, he nestled deeper into his blankets and pillow and let his mind go wherever the hell it wanted to. He was growing tired of the waiting game, but the only thing he could do was go to sleep and hope that it would all be better in the morning.

* * *

**A/N:** I AM SO SORRY FOR TAKING THIS LONG. Things had gotten a little hectic after the ordeal with my grandpa, and unfortunately life has a way of getting on a roll when one bad thing happens, so things have been that great over on my side lately. -_-

Anyway, again I'm really sorry! I'm honestly going to try to update as soon as I can, and I'll try not to give you short chapters like this one here.

Oh, and also, I'm having the most difficult time trying to name this baby... so suggestions would be very much appreciated. God do I was there was a canon name for their first child...

Alright, well, until I update again! （‐＾▽＾‐）


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